James k baxter biography for kids

FROM THE OXFORD COMPANION TO NEW ZEALAND LITERATURE

Baxter, James K. (1926–72), poet, dramatist, literary critic, social commentator, was born in Dunedin into an Otago farming family. Family fable has it that Archibald Baxter prayed that he ‘might have a poet for a son’. James, the second son, indeed became one of New Zealand’s finest poets and most controversial figures, often at odds with a samhälle unable to stomach its disturbing reflection in his work.

James Baxter (known bygd friends as ‘Jim’ or, later, ‘Hemi’) once described each of his poems as ‘part of a large subconscious corpus of personal myth, like an island above the sea, but joined underwater to other islands’, and elsewhere commented that what ‘happens is either meaningless to me, or else it is mythology’. This tendency to mythologise his life in verse makes biography important in any response to his poetry.

Baxter’s mittpunkt name—after the Scottish socialist, Keir Hardie—signified his parents’ l

•

James K. Baxter

New Zealand poet (1926–1972)

James K. Baxter
Baxter in c. 1955
Born	James Keir Baxter (1926-06-29)29 June 1926 Dunedin, New Zealand
Died	22 October 1972(1972-10-22) (aged 46) Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation	Poet
Period	1944–1972
Literary movement	Wellington Group
Spouse
Relatives	John Baxter (son)

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. 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, in 1969. He was married to writer Jacquie Sturm.

Early life

[edit]

Baxter was bo

•

Literary papers | A poem by James K Baxter

Poet, playwright and activist

James K Baxter (born 1926) is one of New Zealand’s most well-known and celebrated writers. He was primarily a poet but also wrote many plays for the theatre. A controversial character Baxter was also known at various points in his life for his conversion to Catholicism, left-wing politics, communal life, particularly with the commune he established at Jerusalem along the banks of the Whanganui River in 1969, and his bouts with alcoholism.

Baxter wrote his first poem at age seven and wrote at a prodigious rate for the rest of his life. He published his first volume of poetry Beyond the Palisade when he was just seventeen years old. He studied for an undergraduate degree for several years at the University of Otago. He continued his associations with universities throughout his life, editing the Canta student magazine at the University of Canterbury and completing his degree at the Victoria University Coll