James Keir Baxter (29 June 1926 – 22 October 1972) was a New Zealand poet and playwright. He was also known as an activist for the preservation of
Māori culture
Māori culture () is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of New Zealand cu ...
. He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and controversial literary figures. He was a prolific writer who produced numerous poems, plays and articles in his short life, and was regarded as the preeminent writer of his generation. He suffered from alcoholism until the late 1950s. He converted to Catholicism and established a controversial commune at
Jerusalem, New Zealand
Jerusalem, named for the Biblical Jerusalem (in Māori, ''Hiruhārama''), is a settlement up the Whanganui River from Whanganui, New Zealand. Originally called Patiarero, it was one of the largest settlements on the Whanganui River in the 1840s ...
, in 1969. He was married to writer
Jacquie Sturm
Jacqueline Cecilia Sturm (born Te Kare Papuni, also known as Jacquie Baxter; 17 May 1927 – 30 December 2009) was a New Zealand poet, short story writer and librarian. She was one of the first Māori women to complete an undergraduate universi ...
.
Early life
Baxter was born in
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
as the second son to
Archibald Baxter
Archibald McColl Learmond Baxter (13 December 1881 – 10 August 1970) was a New Zealand socialist, pacifist and conscientious objector.
Early life
Baxter was born at Saddle Hill, Otago, on 13 December 1881, to John Baxter and Mary McColl. ...
and
Millicent Brown and grew up near
Brighton, 20 km south of Dunedin city.
He was named after
James Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie (15 August 185626 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908.
Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. ...
, a founder of the
British Labour Party.
Baxter's father had been a
conscientious objector during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and both his parents were active
pacifists
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigne ...
and
socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
.
His mother had studied Latin, French and German at the
Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney
The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney (PLC Sydney) is an independent school, independent Presbyterian Church of Australia, Presbyterian Single-sex school, single-sex Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primary and Secondary sc ...
, the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
and
Newnham College
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millice ...
, University of Cambridge. Baxter and his brother were not baptised,
although their mother read to them sometimes from the Bible.
On his first day of school at
Brighton Primary School (now
Big Rock Primary School), Baxter burned his hand on a stove and later used this incident to represent the failure of institutional education.
In 1936, when Baxter was ten, the family moved to
Wanganui
Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...
where he and his brother attended
St Johns Hill School, and the following year they moved to England and attended
Sibford School in the
Cotswolds.
Both schools were
Quaker schools and
boarding schools
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
.
In 1938 the family returned to New Zealand.
Baxter said of his early life that he felt a gap between himself and other people, "increased considerably by the fact that I was born in New Zealand, and grew up there till I was nine, and then attended an English boarding school for a couple of years, and came back to New Zealand at thirteen, in the first flush of puberty, quite out of touch with my childhood companions and uncertain whether I was an Englishman or a New Zealander".
Baxter began writing poetry at the age of seven, and he accumulated a large body of technically accomplished work both before and during his teenage years.
In 1940, Baxter began attending
King's High School, Dunedin, where he was bullied, because of his differences to other students (in personality, voice and background), his lack of interest in team sports and his family's pacifism.
His older brother, Terence, was a conscientious objector like their father and was detained in military camps between 1941 and 1945 for his refusal to fight in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Between 1942 and 1946, Baxter drafted around 600 poems, saying later in life that his experiences as a teenager were painful but "created a gap in which the poems were able to grow".
In 1943, Baxter's final year of high school, he wrote to a friend that he was considering becoming a lawyer, but was "not decided on it": "If I should find it possible to live by writing I would gladly do so. Yet many men have thought they could, and found it an illusion."
Life and career
Early literary career
![Māori Jesus at Te Papa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/M%C4%81ori_Jesus_at_Te_Papa.JPG)
In March 1944, at age seventeen, Baxter enrolled at the
University of Otago
, image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg
, image_size =
, caption = University clock tower
, motto = la, Sapere aude
, mottoeng = Dare to be wise
, established = 1869; 152 years ago
, type = Public research collegiate ...
.
That same year, he published his first collection of poetry, ''Beyond the Palisade'',
to much critical acclaim.
Allen Curnow
Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (17 June 1911 – 23 September 2001) was a New Zealand poet and journalist.
Life
Curnow was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the son of a fourth generation New Zealander, an Anglican clergyman, and he grew up in a relig ...
selected six poems from the collection for 1945 collection ''A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923–1945'', and described Baxter's poems as "a new occurrence in New Zealand: strong in impulse and confident in invention, with qualities of youth in verse which we have lacked".
In this year, Baxter also won the Macmillan Brown Prize for his poem "Convoys". The prize was coincidentally named after his Scottish maternal grandfather,
John Macmillan Brown.
Baxter's work during this time was, as with his contemporary compatriots, most notably the experimental novelist
Janet Frame
Janet Paterson Frame (28 August 1924 – 29 January 2004) was a New Zealand author. She was internationally renowned for her work, which included novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awar ...
, largely influenced by the modernist works of
Dylan Thomas. He was a member of the so-called "
Wellington Group" of writers that also included
Louis Johnson,
W.H. Oliver and
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell. Baxter typically wrote short lyrical poems or cycles of the same rather than longer poems.
After his eighteenth birthday on 29 June 1944, like his father and brother, Baxter registered as a conscientious objector, citing "religious and humanitarian" grounds. The authorities did not pursue him however due to the late stage of the war.
Baxter failed to complete his course work at the University of Otago due to increasing
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...
, and was forced to take a range of odd jobs from 1945–7.
He fictionalised these experiences in his only novel ''Horse'', published posthumously in 1985.
It was during this time that he had his first significant relationship, with a young medical student, but the relationship ended due to his alcoholism.
He wrote the collection of poems ''Cold Spring'' about this early failed relationship, but it was not published until after his death in 1996.
In 1947 he met
Jacquie Sturm
Jacqueline Cecilia Sturm (born Te Kare Papuni, also known as Jacquie Baxter; 17 May 1927 – 30 December 2009) was a New Zealand poet, short story writer and librarian. She was one of the first Māori women to complete an undergraduate universi ...
, a young Māori student, who would later become his wife.
In late 1947, Baxter moved to
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
where he continued working odd jobs.
Although he did not enrol at the
University of Canterbury he became the literary editor of its student magazine,
''Canta'', and attended some lectures.
His behaviour could be erratic due to his alcoholism.
His second collection, ''Blow, Wind of Fruitfulness'' was published in 1948, and its themes included the New Zealand landscape and solitude. Curnow, in a review, described Baxter as "the most original of New Zealand poets now living".
Marriage and later career
In 1948 Baxter married Jacquie Sturm at
St John's Cathedral, Napier, and his developing interest in Christianity culminated in his joining the
Anglican church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
and being
baptised
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
during that same year.
They moved to Wellington and in February 1951 Baxter enrolled at
Wellington Teachers' College.
In 1952 Baxter's poems were published in a collaborative volume, ''Poems Unpleasant'', alongside poems from Louis Johnson and Anton Vogt. He completed his teaching course in December 1952, and subsequently published his third major collection of poems, ''The Fallen House''.
In 1954 he was appointed assistant master at
Epuni
Epuni is a suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand situated in the south of the North Island of New Zealand. The suburb lies around one kilometre east of the Lower Hutt CBD.
The suburb takes its name from the Te Āti Awa
Te Āti Awa is a Māori ...
School,
Lower Hutt, and it was here that he wrote a series of children's poems published later as ''The Tree House, and Other Poems for Children'' (1974).
Baxter and his wife had a daughter, Hilary, in 1949, and a son, John, in 1952.
In late 1954, Baxter joined
Alcoholics Anonymous, successfully achieving sobriety, and in 1955, he finally graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
from
Victoria University College.
He had also received a substantial inheritance from a great-aunt in 1955 and was able to purchase a house for the family in
Ngaio, Wellington.
He left Epuni School early in 1956 to write and edit primary school bulletins for the
Department of Education's School Publications Branch. This period is likely to have influenced his later writing which criticised bureaucracy.
In 1957 Baxter took a course in
Roman Catholicism and his collection of poems ''In Fires of No Return'', published in 1958 by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, was influenced by his new faith. This was his first work to be published internationally, though it was not critically well-received.
Baxter's wife, a committed Anglican, was dismayed by his conversion to Catholicism, and it was partly because of his conversion that they separated in 1957.
Baxter admitted however in a letter to a friend that his conversion was "just one more event in a series of injuries, alcoholism, and gross mistakes".
Through the late 50s and 60s Baxter visited the
Southern Star Abbey
The Abbey of our Lady of the Southern Star, also known as Southern Star Abbey, is a Trappist abbey located in a remote, rural area of the North Island, New Zealand in the Diocese of Palmerston North. The monastery supports itself by operating a ...
, a
Cistercian monastery at
Kopua near
Central Hawke's Bay.
He was baptised into the Catholic church in 1958.
Later in 1958, Baxter received a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
stipend to study educational publishing and began an extended journey through Asia, and especially India, where
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
's university
Shantiniketan
Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his s ...
was one of the inspirations for Baxter's later community at
Jerusalem, New Zealand
Jerusalem, named for the Biblical Jerusalem (in Māori, ''Hiruhārama''), is a settlement up the Whanganui River from Whanganui, New Zealand. Originally called Patiarero, it was one of the largest settlements on the Whanganui River in the 1840s ...
. In India he was reconciled with his wife and contracted
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
.
His writing after returning from India was more overtly critical of New Zealand society, evident in the collection ''Howrah Bridge and Other Poems'' (1961).
He was particularly concerned about the displacement of Māori within the country.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Baxter became a powerful and prolific writer of both poems and drama, and it was through his 1958 radio play ''Jack Winter's Dream'' that he became internationally known.
The play was produced by the
New Zealand Broadcasting Service for radio,
and in 1978 was adapted for the screen by New Zealand filmmaker
David Sims.
The first half of the 1960s also saw, however, Baxter struggling to make ends meet on a postman's wage, having resigned from the Department of Education in 1963 and refused to take work as a schoolmaster.
He also controversially criticised ''The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse'', an anthology published by his former champion Allen Curnow, for under-representing younger New Zealand poets.
However, in 1966 Baxter's critically acclaimed collection of poems ''Pig Island Letters'' was published in which his writing found a new level of clarity.
In 1966, Baxter took up the
Robert Burns Fellowship
The Robert Burns Fellowship is a New Zealand literary residency. Established in 1958 to coincide with bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Robert Burns, it is often claimed to be New Zealand's premier literary residency. The list of past ...
at the University of Otago, which eased the money worries for a time.
He held the fellowship for two years during which time he participated in protests against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
During the fellowship he also had a number of his plays staged at the
Globe Theatre by Dunedin director Patric Carey.
Jerusalem
In 1968 Baxter claimed in a letter to his friend
John Weir that he had been instructed in a dream to "Go to Jerusalem".
Jerusalem, New Zealand
Jerusalem, named for the Biblical Jerusalem (in Māori, ''Hiruhārama''), is a settlement up the Whanganui River from Whanganui, New Zealand. Originally called Patiarero, it was one of the largest settlements on the Whanganui River in the 1840s ...
was a small Māori settlement (known by its Māori transliteration, Hiruhārama) on the
Wanganui River. He left his university position and a job composing catechetical material for the
Catholic Education Board, with nothing but a bible. This was the culmination of a short period in which he struggled with family life and his vocation as a poet.
While planning his move to Jerusalem, in early 1969, Baxter spent some time in
Grafton, Auckland where he set up a drop-in centre for drug addicts, acting on the same principles as Alcoholics Anonymous.
Around this time, Baxter worked for three weeks as a cleaner at
Chelsea Sugar Refinery
New Zealand Sugar Company Limited is a long-established business and landmark in Birkenhead, New Zealand, Birkenhead, New Zealand, located on the northern shore of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour. The company is also known colloquially as "Chels ...
, which inspired the poem ''Ballad of the Stonegut Sugar Works''.
He had been referred to the job by poet
Hone Tuwhare Honing is a kind of metalworking.
Hone may also refer to:
* Hone (name) (incl. Hōne), a list of people with the surname, given name or nickname
* Hõne language
Hõne is a Jukunoid language spoken in Gombe State and Taraba State, Nigeria
...
.
He also adopted the Māori version of his name, Hemi.
Around July or August 1969, Baxter travelled to Jerusalem, which according to John Weir was at that time "a tiny Māori settlement – it had a marae, a resident priest, a church, a convent, resident nuns and some abandoned dwellings."
Baxter stayed in a cottage owned by the
Sisters of Compassion, and obtained permission for a long stay from the
mother general of the sisters.
He proceeded to form a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
structured around "spiritual aspects of Māori communal life".
It was a place where he felt he could embody both his Catholic faith and his interest in Māori culture.
He lived a sparse and isolated existence and made frequent trips to the nearby cities where he worked with the poor and spoke out against what he perceived as a social order that sanctions poverty. His poems of this time, published in his final collections ''Jerusalem Sonnets'' (1970) and ''Autumn Testament'' (1972), have a conversational style but speak strongly of his social and political convictions.
The commune's popularity grew, in part due to an article in the
''Sunday Times'' newspaper in June 1970, and by mid-1970 around 25 people were living in the community.
The population increased to 40 permanent residents by May 1971, mostly aged between 16 and 25, living in three abandoned houses, and the number of visitors was estimated by Baxter at about a thousand over the year.
The five goals Baxter devised for the commune were: "To share one's goods; To speak the truth, not hiding one's heart from others; To love one another and show it by the embrace; To take no job where one has to lick the boss's arse; To learn from the Maori side of the fence".
He was, however, reluctant to impose any kind of rules or work roster.
The increased numbers of residents and visitors, and the lack of order and regulation, led to growing concern from the Sisters of Compassion and
Wanganui District Council
Whanganui District is one of the districts of New Zealand. It includes the city of Whanganui and surrounding areas.
Geography
Formerly spelled "Wanganui", the Whanganui District Council resulted from the amalgamation of Wanganui and Waitotara cou ...
, and opposition from local residents, particularly the local Māori
iwi
Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...
,
Ngāti Hau
Ngāti Hau are the Māori ''iwi'' (tribes) of the Whanganui River area in New Zealand.
There are two stories of where the name ''Ngāti Hau'' comes from. One is that it comes from Haupipi, who arrived in New Zealand on the '' Aotea'' canoe, aft ...
.
Baxter himself was often absent from the commune participating in protests or other social work.
In September 1971, the commune was disbanded under pressure from the Council and local farmers.
Baxter returned to live in Wellington, but in February 1972 was permitted to return to Jerusalem provided that only 10 people would be allowed to live on the land at any one time.
Final years and death
![James K](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/James_K._Baxter_memorial_plaque_in_Dunedin.jpg)
The harsh deprivations Baxter adopted at this time took their toll on his health. By 1972 he was too ill to continue living at Jerusalem and moved to another commune near Auckland. On 22 October 1972 he suffered a
coronary thrombosis
Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...
in the street and died in a nearby house, aged 46. He was buried at Jerusalem on Māori land in front of "the Top House" where he had lived, in a ceremony combining Māori and Catholic traditions.
A river boulder on the burial site was inscribed with his Māori name Hemi.
Sturm was Baxter's
literary executor
The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially completed w ...
after his death. She collected and catalogued his prolific writing, arranged new and revised publications of his work, and negotiated the use and adaptation of his works. She set up the James K. Baxter Charitable Trust, which supported causes he had supported, for example prison reform and drug addiction rehabilitation programmes, and ensured that all proceeds of his work went to the trust.
Evidence and allegations of sexual assault
In January 2019, the
Victoria University Press
Te Herenga Waka University Press or THWUP (formerly Victoria University Press) is the book publishing arm of Victoria University of Wellington, located in Wellington, New Zealand. As of 2022, the press had published around 800 books.
History
Vi ...
published a collection of Baxter's personal letters as ''James K Baxter: Letters of a Poet''. The collection was edited by his friend, John Weir. One letter in the collection revealed that Baxter confided to a friend that he raped his wife, Jacquie Sturm, after she expressed low interest in sex. New Zealanders reacted with dismay to the revelations, describing them as "awful", "terrible" and "shocking".
In ''The Spinoff''
John Newton
John Newton (; – 21 December 1807) was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. He served as a sailor in the Royal Navy (after forc ...
wrote that it is no longer possible to talk about Baxter without addressing how Baxter thinks and writes about women.
Paul Millar, a Baxter scholar and personal friend of Sturm, who had been appointed as her literary executor after her death, cautioned against reading the letter as turning Sturm into a victim: "Leaving apart how appalling this letter is – a betrayal on so many levels from the brutal act described, the lack of shame in the description, and the profound betrayal of trust – its publicity is once again putting Jacquie in a subordinate position to Baxter, a bit player in his narrative. ... Jacquie deserves much more than to be remembered as Baxter’s victim ... despite everything she endured, she emerged victorious. If people really want to know Jacquie they should seek our her writing, not Baxter's."
Mark Williams,
emeritus Professor
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of English at Victoria University, said the admission was consistent with what he knew of Baxter: "He observed his own adulteries objectively as part of the fallen human condition. This even extended to marital rape. I’m not sure if he was simply a phoney, as some have observed. He was genuinely religious. The problem is that his religious faith allowed him to regard his sexual failings—small and great—at a quizzical remove."
Baxter and Sturm's great-grandson, Jack McDonald, wrote that the account was "sickening" and that he believed his great-grandmother "would never have wanted these brutal details made public". He also noted that she never received sufficient credit for connecting Baxter to the Māori world: "The reality is that Nana had introduced Baxter to everything he knew about
Māoritanga".
An allegation of attempted rape followed when, in April 2019, the New Zealand news outlet ''
Stuff'' published an account by Rosalind Lewis (Ros), who had been at the Jerusalem commune in 1970 when she was aged 18 years. Ros described an "attempted rape", which would have succeeded were it not for Baxter's
erectile dysfunction. She mentioned a friend of hers, "Angela", who had told Ros that she was permitted to watch him
flagellate himself (a variety of religious penance), and that she, Angela, knew of two other women who she claims were sexually abused. No charges were pressed at the time by the women. Lewis said: "This truth needs to sit alongside Baxter's literary achievements. It must be fully acknowledged and never glossed over. This is for the sake of women such as myself and for those who may not be able to find a voice as I have. As ever, in celebrating the genius of Baxter the artist, we cannot overlook the evils of Baxter the human being."
Critical reception and legacy
Criticism of Baxter's poetry has generally focussed on his incorporation of European myths into his New Zealand poems, his interest in Māori culture and language, and the significance of his religious experiences and conversion to Roman Catholicism.
New Zealand
poet laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
Vincent O'Sullivan wrote in 1976 that Baxter is an inherently New Zealand poet: "that is the proportion of Baxter's achievement – the most complete delineation yet of a New Zealand mind. The poetic record of its shaping is as original an act as anything we have."
A common theme in Baxter's extensive body of writing was strong criticism of New Zealand society. His biographer Paul Millar said: "If, at times, Baxter appears to evaluate New Zealand society harshly, his judgements are always from the perspective of one intimately involved in the social process."
Baxter's use of
te reo Māori has inspired both praise and criticism. W.H. Oliver described it as "often a cosmetic device, or worse, an earnest affectation".
By contrast, John Newton noted that at least some Māori welcomed Baxter's engagement with their language and culture,
and John Weir regards his use as "a genuine attempt at using a bicultural language in this country when no other Pākehā was doing so".
In his critical study ''Lives of the Poets'',
Michael Schmidt claimed that Baxter was "one of the most precocious poets of the century" whose neglect outside of New Zealand is baffling.
In Schmidt's view, Baxter's writing was affected by his alcoholism. Schmidt also commented on Baxter's influences, noting that his work drew upon
Dylan Thomas and
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
; then on
Louis MacNeice and
Robert Lowell. Michael Schmidt identified "an amalgam of
Hopkins, Thomas and native
atavisms" in Baxter's ''Prelude N.Z.''.
The critic
Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Roger Seymour-Smith (24 April 1928 – 1 July 1998) was a British poet, literary critic, and biographer.
Biography
Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Highgate School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was editor of ''Isi ...
ranked Baxter above Robert Lowell ("Baxter knew all about narcissism and vanity, and is a much superior poet"), and defended Baxter's high reputation on the grounds of his spiritual and intellectual seeking: "Baxter's energy and sheer intelligence, his refusal to give way to mean cerebral impulses or to give up his terrible struggle with himself, are sufficient to justify his high position in New Zealand poetry". On the other hand, Smith said that Baxter "remained, disappointingly, over-intoxicated with his own energy, and never convincingly manifested qualities of restraint to balance it."
A number of Baxter's poems were written in the
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
form, and Baxter has been described by critics as "New Zealand's principal lyricist".
A number of Baxter's works have since been translated into music by New Zealand musicians.
In 2000, a collection of songs written to Baxter's poems was released, titled ''Baxter'', and featuring some of New Zealand's most well-known musicians: for example
Dave Dobbyn
Sir David Joseph Dobbyn (born 3 January 1957) is a New Zealand musician, singer–songwriter and record producer. In his early career he was a member of the rock group Th' Dudes and was the main creative force in pop band DD Smash. Since then ...
,
Martin Phillipps,
Emma Paki
Emma Paki (born January 1968 in Whakatane, New Zealand) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter.
Musical career
Her debut single "System Virtue" (produced by Jaz Coleman) won her best songwriter at the RIANZ 1993 New Zealand Music Awards
The Ao ...
,
Greg Johnson,
David Downes and
Mahinārangi Tocker. It was devised by New Zealand singer-songwriter Charlotte Yates.
Selected works
* ''Beyond the Palisade'', 1944
* ''Blow, Wind of Fruitfulness'', 1948
* ''Hart Crane; a poem'', 1948
* ''Recent Trends in New Zealand Poetry'', 1951
* ''Poems Unpleasant'', 1952 (with
Louis Johnson and Anton Vogt)
* ''Rapunzel: a Fantasia for Six Voices'', 1953
* ''The Fallen House'', 1953
* ''The Fire and the Anvil'', 1955
* ''Traveller’s Litany'', 1956
* ''The Iron Breadboard: Studies in New Zealand Writing'', 1950
* ''The Night Shift: Poems on Aspects of Love'', 1957 (with Charles Doyle, Louis Johnson and
Kendrick Smithyman)
* ''In Fires of No Return'', 1958
* ''Chosen Poems'', 1958
* ''Two Plays: The Wide Open Cage and Jack Winter's Dream'', 1959
* ''The Ballad of Calvary Street'', 1960
* ''Howrah Bridge and Other Poems'', 1961
* ''Three Women and the Sea'', 1961
* ''The Spots of the Leopard'', 1962
* ''The Ballad of the Soap Powder Lock-Out'', 1963
* ''A Selection of Poetry'', 1964
* ''Pig Island Letters'', 1966
* ''Aspects of Poetry in New Zealand'', 1967
* ''The Lion Skin'', 1967
* ''The Man on the Horse'', 1967
* ''The Bureaucrat'', 1968 (prod.)
* ''The Rock Woman: Selected Poems'', 1969
* ''Jerusalem Sonnets: Poems for Colin Durning'', 1970
* ''The Flowering Cross'', 1970
* ''The Devil and Mr Mulcahy, and The Band Rotunda'', 1971 (plays)
* ''Jerusalem Daybook'', 1971
* ''The Sore-Footed Man, and The Temptations of Oedipus'', 1971 (plays)
* ''Ode to Auckland and Other Poems'', 1972
* ''Autumn Testament'', 1972 (reissued in 1998, edited by Paul Millar)
* ''Four God Songs'', 1972
* ''Letter to Peter Olds'', 1972
Posthumously published
* ''Runes'', 1973
* ''Two Obscene Poems'', 1974
* ''Barney Flanagan and Other Poems'', read by James K. Baxter (record), 1973
* ''The Labyrinth: Some Uncollected Poems 1944–72'', 1974
* ''The Tree House and Other Poems for Children'', 1974
* ''The Bone Chanter'', edited and introduced by John Weir, 1976
* ''The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady'', edited and introduced by John Weir, 1976
* ''Baxter Basics'', 1979
* ''Collected Poems'', edited by John Weir, 1979 (reissued in 1995 and 2004)
* ''Collected Plays'', edited by Howard McNaughton, 1982
* ''Selected Poems'', edited by John Weir, 1982
* ''Horse: a Novel'', 1985
* ''The Essential Baxter'', selected and introduced by John Weir, 1993
* ''Cold Spring: Baxter's Unpublished Early Collection'', edited and introduced by Paul Millar, 1996
* ''James K. Baxter: Poems'', selected and introduced by
Sam Hunt
Sam Lowry Hunt (born December 8, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Hunt played football in his high school and college years and once attempted to pursue a professional sports career before signing with MCA ...
, 2009
* ''Poems to a Glass Woman'', with introductory essay by John Weir, 2012
* ''James K. Baxter: Complete Prose'', four volume set edited by John Weir, 2015 (Victoria University Press)
* ''James K Baxter: Letters of a Poet'', edited by John Weir, 2015 (Victoria University Press)
References
External links
International Institute of Modern Letters* from the ''
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
The ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' (DNZB) is an encyclopedia or biographical dictionary containing biographies of over 3,000 deceased New Zealanders. It was first published as a series of print volumes from 1990 to 2000, went online ...
''
"'He Waiata o Hemi' an unpublished poem by Baxter" Essay by Peter Whiteford,
University of Wellington.
" ‘He Who Would Be a Poet’: James K. Baxter's Early Poetry Manuscript Books" an essay by Paul Millar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, James Keir
1926 births
1972 deaths
20th-century New Zealand poets
20th-century New Zealand male writers
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
New Zealand male poets
New Zealand Roman Catholics
New Zealand people of Scottish descent
Roman Catholic writers
Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Writers from Dunedin
Social critics
Pukerua Bay Residents
20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights
New Zealand male dramatists and playwrights
New Zealand conscientious objectors