- 2002 edition. 288 pages
- Publisher. Victoria University Press
- Softcover. Format BB. Illustrations. Index
- Condition. Very good
Essays and Notebooks regarding Art and Artists, Writing and Writers in New Zealand
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. The author writes: After bathing, as a young man, in the Wanganui River of Baxter s poetry, much of my subsequent reading, writing, painting and thinking were shaped by his dreams of self, society and artistic creation.
For O'Brien, the essay and notebook are very much lived-in forms so this collection teems with anecdote 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 some notable sites, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Rosalie Gascoigne and Denis O'Connor.
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