‘He Who Would Be a Poet’: James K. Baxter's Early Poetry Manuscript Books
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26686/knznq.v2i2.610Abstract
In 1942, the only real clue to sixteen year-old James K. Baxter's future fame could be found in six Manuscript Books full of poems, and he did not show these to many people. As he wrote in a letter to his friend Noel Ginn, 'I was very loath to expose my verse to the private or public eye, as I had sensed early the morbid fear of poetic expression which so many have' (Baxter to Ginn, 12 Feb.1943). By 1946, when his regular correspondence with Ginn concluded, Baxter had filled a further seven MS Books and was well into his eighth—MS Book XIV. When, in February 1947, MS Book XIV had been filled, the total number of Baxter's poems in final draft was 1025—only seventy-two of these appear in the Collected Poems.
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Baxter, James K. Letter to Noel Ginn. 12 Feb. 1943. McKay Papers. VUWLibrary. MS Item 28/8.
Baxter, James K. Letter to Noel Ginn. 25 Feb. 1944. McKay Papers. VUW Library. MS Item28/36
Baxter, James K. Letter to Lawrence Baigent. 4 mar. 1945. McKay Papers. VUW Library. MSMcKay 19/3/19.
Baxter, James K. Manuscript notebooks—fair copies. Volumes I-XXVIII. 1937-67. 28 volumes. James K. Baxter Papers. Hocken Library MSS 704/1-28.
Baxter, James K. Manuscript notebooks—drafts. 1937-c. 1968. 25 volumes. 'Hocken series MS 975-1-25.
McKay, Frank. The Life of James K. Baxter. Auckland: Oxford UP, 1990.
McNaughton, Howard D. ‘Baxter’s Strong Ghost.’ Landfall 137, 35.1 (Mar.1981): 62-6.
Millar, Paul. '“Spark to a Waiting Fuse”: James K. Baxter's Correspondence with Noel Ginn, 1942-46.' Unpublished Dissertation. Wellington: VUW Library, 1996. This paper is based on ‘Section Six: Baxter's Early Manuscript Books' of 'Part I: Texts and Contexts' (pp. 60-70).
Weir, J.E. Introduction. The Bone Chanter: Unpublished Poems 1945-72 by James K. Baxter. Wellington: Oxford UP, 1976. 5-8.
Weir, J.E. Introduction. Collected Poems by James K. Baxter. Wellington: Oxford UP, 1981. xxi-xxvii.
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