Alexander Wyclif Reed (1908-1979), the son of a Methodist pastor, felt as a child a love of reading and an interest in books. He thus began to work in the publishing house of his uncle Alfred H. Reed, of which he would become the most responsible until 1971. Author of more than two hundred titles, he became interested in Maori folklore and culture, of which, as editor and compiler, he was a great diffuser. Reed did not know the Maori customs and language first-hand, he was not a researcher or possessed special skills as a writer, but he was able to respond to the interest of the public with the publication of anthologies on myths, legends and stories whose protagonist is the Maori people.