Baxter’s prose is now accessible through the NZETC (New Zealand Electronic Text Collection), Victoria University’s large and ever-growing digital resource
comprising historical texts, manuscripts, and contemporary texts.
Complete Prose
was published as a four-volume set last year by Victoria University
Press. It is edited by Baxter scholar John Weir, who began working on
the publication 40 years ago. Its publication was met with praise by
scholars, critics and Baxter fans.
In his review in the NZ Listener, Baxter scholar Paul Millar said, “Reading Baxter’s Complete Prose en masse offers new and unexpected perspectives on his life and work.”
The
four volumes draw on Baxter’s prose writing from his first draft of
‘Before Sunrise’ as a teenager in 1942 to his ‘Confession to the Lord
Christ’ shortly before his death in 1972. Reviews, essays, lectures,
journal articles, interviews and correspondence with friends and critics
are some of what readers will be able to browse. The volumes are a
chronicle of Baxter’s life and times, his preferences and prejudices,
his crises and turbulent occasions.
Fergus Barrowman, publisher at Victoria University Press, says Complete Prose is a significant addition to Baxter scholarship.
“Complete Prose is
a testament to Baxter’s huge contribution to New Zealand literature,
culture and society. In its digital form, it will be readily accessible
to many more readers, which will allow a continuing engagement with
Baxter’s work.”
The collection is accessible here: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-corpus-baxter.html
