James K. Baxter

James Keir Baxter (1926 to 1972) is recognised as one of New Zealand's foremost poets. He was born in Dunedin and was educated in Quaker schools in New Zealand and England. His father, Archibald, was a pacifist who was imprisoned for his beliefs during World War I and his mother, Millicent was the daughter of a prominent Christchurch academic, J Macmillan Brown.

Baxter wrote more than 30 books of poetry, several plays and many critical articles. He was recognised as a major talent when his first book, Beyond the Palisade (1944) was published. He was 18.

Useful Link

The following link provides more detail on the poet and his life [[1]

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, 1955
• The Iron Breadboard: Studies in New Zealand Writing, 1957
• 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
• 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 (edited by Paul Millar)
• Four God Songs, 1972
• Letter to Peter Olds, 1972
• Runes, 1973.
• Two Obscene Poems, 1974
• Barney Flanagan and Other Poems, read by James K. Baxter, 1973 (record)
• The Labyrinth: Some Uncollected Poems 1944-72, 1974.
• The Tree House and Other Poems for Children, 1974.
• The Bone Chanter, 1976 (ed. and introd. by J.E. Weir)
• The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady, 1976 (ed. and introd. by J.E. Weir)
• James K. Baxter as Critic, 1978 (by Frank McKay).
• Baxter Basics, 1979
• Collected Poems, 1979 (edited by John Weir, reissued in 1995)
• Collected Plays, 1982.
• Selected Poems, 1982.
• Horse: a Novel, 1985.
• The Essential Baxter / selected and introduced by John Weir, 1993
• Cold Spring: Baxter's Unpublished Early Collection, 1996 (edited by Paul Millar)