After Bathing at Baxter's: Essays and Notebooks
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After Bathing at Baxter's is a personal exploration of-and homage to-some of the important New Zealand poets and painters of the 20th century, beginning-as the title suggests-with James K. Baxter. This collection is filled with anecdotes and personal observation. Alongside Baxter, the book includes major pieces on writers Kendrick Smithyman, Janet Frame, and Ruth Dallas. Following a sequence of autobiographical stories, O'Brien shifts his gaze to the visual arts, taking the reader on a tour of Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Rosalie Gascoigne, and Denis O'Connor.Author Biography: Gregory O'Brien has exhibited paintings, illustrated books, and published numerous collections of poetry, nonfiction, and a novel. As well as coediting three anthologies of New Zealand poetry, O'Brien has coedited (with Te Miringa Hohaia and Lara Strongman) Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance, which was cowinner of the Biography and History Prize, Montana New Zealand Book Awards, 2001. He lives in New Zealand and works as a curator at City Gallery Wellington; runs a poetry workshop at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University, Wellington; and appears regularly on New Zealand's National Radio.
Black square dance: an introduction7Acknowledgements14IAn Alphabet Without EdgesAfter bathing at Baxter's17Southern Woman - Ruth Dallas46An alphabet without edges - from a Janet Frame notebook53Imagine the imagination - Margaret Mahy's Dissolving Ghost62A journey around Kendrick Smithyman's Atua Wera66High cultural life - Eric McCormick's An Absurd Ambition81Widening horizons and worlds regained: a conversation84IIThe Shape of LivingMorning Glory in Springtime in autumn - self-portrait101An attempt at the first page of an autobiography103The shape of living children I105Lost and living children109Aspects of his face111East born114Wild horses120The exact size of the world123The dark plane leaves at evening126North Piha bach with typewriter145The second Ada148Radio Birdman152A long sentence in Czech ending in English158The shape of living children II159The man who wrote the book about the weather163Electricities166IIIFringe DwellersBlue Monk, Black Light - Ralph Hotere and Thelonious Monk, a notebook179No road to follow - Eric Lee-Johnson195These May Mornings in October - Rosalie Gascogne199Big tree transmission - Colin McCahon's tau cross202Breaking open the luggage - Denis O'Connor's 'concrete poetry'209First on the left past the art supermarket, the magic theatre - Martin Edmond's The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont213I am a shepherd217Chunk of landscape, chunk of memory - the paintings of Euan Macleod218Changing the light - Noel McKenna in Taranaki225The outsider within229Somebody say something - Colin McCahon's Storm Warning239The public interest - an annotated bibliography260Index283
