Mike White05:00, May 09 2021 Chris Skelton/Stuff CK Stead’s first novel, Smith’s Dream, was published 50 years ago, but remains one of his best-known works. Adapted into groundbreaking movie Smith’s Dream holds a special place in New Zealand literature. As Stead publishes the final volume of his memoirs, he looks back 50 years and talks to Mike White about his first novel, how it almost never made it to print, and why it has two endings. It was a slight book, barely 140 pages between hard covers. It had been laboured on during long holidays and breaks snatched between the author’s work as a professor at Auckland University.