Spark to a Waiting Fuse James K. Baxter's Correspondence with Noel Ginn, 1942-46 an Edition of Predominantly Unpublished Manuscripts

Abstract

This thesis presents a complete and accurate text of the 1942-46 correspondence between the poet James K. Baxter and a young pacifist named Noel Ginn who was imprisoned—along with Baxter's older brother Terence—for the duration of World War Two as a military defaulter. The correspondence, which began shortly after Baxter had turned sixteen, is notable for its focus on literature, and for what it reveals about Baxter's development as a poet. The critical essay, 'Texts and Contexts', that introduces the correspondence draws on interviews and manuscript material to present significant new biographical information about Baxter's early years. As well as examining the impact of the war on the adolescent Baxter, the essay discusses his relationship with his older brother; the influences on his early poetry; his methods of composition at this time; and his thematic concerns in his 'juvenile', 'adolescent' and 'early adult' phases of development as a poet. Interwoven with this discussion is an account of the lives of both Noel Ginn and Terence Baxter that details the factors leading to their imprisonment as military defaulters. The edition of the correspondence is an accurate transcription with detailed annotations of Baxter's fifty-six letters to Noel Ginn (held in the Victoria University of Wellington Library), and the seven extant letters from Ginn to Baxter (held in the University of Otago's Hocken Library). In addition, the poems by Baxter that are discussed in the correspondence are, for the most part, interspersed between the letters so as to replicate as nearly as possible the sequence in which Ginn would have received them. Thus this edition contains, along with the letters, complete transcriptions of 255, predominantly unpublished, poems by Baxter. One of the reasons that Baxter found Ginn such an interesting correspondent was that he was also writing poetry, and was including his poems in his letters. Baxter transcribed many of Ginn's poems into a small notebook, which he later deposited with his papers in the Hocken Library. His comments on Ginn's poetry reveal almost as much about his approach to writing as his comments on his own verse, consequently all the extant poems by Ginn, not already contained in the text of the extant letters, are reproduced in full in Part VIII. Following the letters is a transcript of the complete text of Baxter's unpublished second collection, Cold Spring, a copy of which had been given to Noel Ginn. Baxter's references to the collection in his letters to Lawrence Baigent indicate that he attempted to have this collection published for almost two years. If he had been successful, Cold Spring would have bridged the four year gap between his first two published collections, Beyond the Palisade and Blow, Wind of Fruitfulness. In addition to the Primary material described above, illustrations, appendices, indexes, and occasional publications, that add to what is known about this period in Baxter's life, are also included in this edition.