page break

Foreword

Haere mai! Welcome to Volume Two of James K. Baxter: Complete Prose. The first aim of the set of volumes is to present the prose in chronological order of composition. The second aim is to keep Baxter’s writing in full view of the reader. To achieve this it has been decided to provide a plain reading page unencumbered by editorial notes and to consign all critical apparatus to Volume Four, namely,

• Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• Note
• Chronology
• List of Abbreviations
• Notes and References
• Glossary of Māori Words and Phrases
• Short Biographies of Some New Zealand Writers
• Select Bibliography
• Index

Each item in the text is followed by the number given to it in the Contents list. The same number is used to identify its note and reference. The notes can be consulted by keeping Volume Four open alongside the volume you are reading. The Introduction is mainly biographical but it also gives a discursive overview of Baxter’s development as a prose writer. Those who wish to consult the Index or to undertake a systematic reading of the prose by beginning with the Introduction should turn to Volume Four.

Volume Two contains the items Baxter wrote after he returned to Dunedin as Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago in 1966. He held the Fellowship for two years and then remained in Dunedin for a further year working for the Catholic Church. During this time he wrote several essays which surveyed the field of New Zealand poetry. His research culminated in his 1967 publications Aspects of Poetry in New Zealand and The Man on the Horse.

He counterbalanced this literary and academic interest by delivering a number of talks to university student groups. ‘Shots Around the Target’ (No. 384) illustrates their tone and content. He also wrote articles for the N.Z. Tablet, a Catholic journal, whose editor John Kennedy was as hospitable to him as Monte Holcroft was at the N.Z. Listener. In 1867 he developed an page break important friendship with Patric Carey, director of Dunedin’s Globe Theatre, and over a short span was a prolific play-writer.

He had always been a controversialist but from this time on his letters to the editor became even more sharp-edged as he spoke out against the Vietnam War and on behalf of those who existed on the fringes of polite society. In talks, articles and letters to the editor he asked such questions as ‘Is Napalm the Only Answer in Vietnam?’ or made devastating allegations about the motives and judgment of New Zealand’s political leaders, as in ‘A Second Letter to Mr Holyoake’ (No. 481).

By 1968 he rejected the consumer society which, in his view, consumed its children and preyed upon the most disadvantaged. He decided that as he could no longer live in a conventional manner he would take a vow of voluntary poverty and develop a new form of community living which would provide mutual care and support for some of those who could not find a home anywhere else on earth.

John Weir

Christchurch, 22 October 2014