William Heywood Trimble

W.H. Trimble was born near Liverpool in 1860, and emigrated to the North Island of New Zealand with his family in 1875. He worked in the public service in New Plymouth, Wellington and Gisborne before moving to Dunedin in 1898.

In Dunedin, Trimble established perhaps the most significant Whitman collection in the southern hemisphere, undertook his immense Concordance to Leaves of Grass, and wrote bibliographical and biographical works on Whitman.

In 1910, he became the first librarian of the Hocken Library, where he prepared a catalogue of the Library’s collection, while simultaneously preparing his own Whitman catalogue at home, based on his burgeoning personal collection.

Trimble lectured on Whitman in Dunedin, and was an energetic advocate for the poet in cultured circles. He died in 1927 at his St Leonards home, Concord.