Alfred Hamish Reed was just eleven years old when his parents decided to leave England and sail to New Zealand to begin a new life. They arrived on the Arawa in 1887 and settled in Whangarei, where the young Alfred completed his education. In May 1907 A.H. Reed and his wife Isobel established their own bookselling and publishing business in Dunedin, initially concentrating on Sunday School supplies. In 1925 Alfred's nephew Alexander Wycliff Reed joined the firm and the company moved to new headquarters in Dunedin, later moving again to Wellington when business began to pick up.
The AustLit record for Reed Books contains more information on the Reed publishing firm, which has become the most successful to emerge from New Zealand and now publishes books around the world.
During the 1960s and 1970s, A.H. Read undertook a number of highly publicised walks through New Zealand and Australia. He received a knighthood shortly before his death in 1975 at the age of 99. He donated his large collection of books to the Dunedin Public Library where they remain on display.
