James K. Baxter (The Selected Poems)

James K. Baxter (1926– 72) was, as he once described Louis MacNeice, ‘ the most human of poets’ : a flawed, passionate, complex, haunted man, a ‘ lively sinner’ who revealed himself fully and unapologetically in his poems. As editor John Weir has written in his introduction, ‘ from his various quarrels with God, self, society and death emerged a body of work which reveals him to be not merely the most accessible and complete poet to have lived in New Zealand, but also one of the great English-language poets of the twentieth century.’ John Weir’ s definitive selection of James K. Baxter’ s best poems?has been made from the more than three thousand poems?that comprise his literary legacy.