Acknowledged as New Zealand’s most accomplished poet, Baxter is also well-known for his wild lifestyle and the religious community he established on the banks of the Whanganui River.
The forties and fifties were favourable times for poets and poetry, and lively communities of poets sprang up in the main centres, particularly Wellington and Auckland. Debate about the nature of poetry led to some heated exchanges.
Acknowledged as one of New Zealand’s most accomplished poets, Baxter had devoted the last years of his life to social work among alcoholics and drug addicts. He died in Auckland, aged 46.
Much fiction of the forties and fifties concentrated on the trials of an isolated individual in a hostile, puritanical society. This theme mirrored the actual struggle of many New Zealand fiction writers to make a living and achieve acceptance.
