The Tony Arthur Library
Friday, 7 - Wednesday, 26 November 2025
James K Baxter, In Times of Trouble among Nations (Baxter's last published poem)
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Lot Details
James K Baxter - In Times of Trouble among Nations (Had Written Copy of Baxter's last published poem) Comprising 2 pages of short hand and 2 very tidily hand-written pages of the poem, each copy signed Hemi. The poem was published in the Listener in 1972 and was to be his last literary effort. An exceptionally rare piece of NZ literary history. Provenance: Baxter was a friend of the vendors parents in the last 2 years of his life, when he himself was around 6-8 years old, his father an English teacher at Wanganui High School, befriended him and asked if would give a talk to his senior students, which he was delighted to do. After this he was a frequent visitor at their house and they also visited him at the Jerusalem commune. The vendor tells the story during one of his visits when some Jehovahs Witnesses knocked on the door, his mother was having trouble persuading them to leave, James heard the commotion from the lounge and came to assist, exclaiming "Welcome Brothers" and proceeded to embrace them both. They were taken aback at being so intimately welcomed by such a hairy unkempt bare-foot hippie and swiftly left. Not long before he passed James wrote a poem in their sunroom while looking out at the garden, he started by describing a ceramic mobile his mother (Jane, mentioned in the poem) had hand crafted and a bird filled flowering tree in the back yard. The vendors parents attended James funeral in Jerusalem.
