Considered New Zealand's most significant poet, James K. Baxter has also been called one of the most remarkable English-language poets of the mid-twentieth century. Born into an educated family in New Zealand, he spent most of his life there and became a much-loved and respected figure in his homeland. Starting out as something of a boy prodigy in the field of poetry, Baxter went on to face alcoholism, then to convert to Catholicism. In his last years, some considered him a saint as he wandered around New Zealand "barefoot, long-bearded, patched and baggy." Baxter published his first poetry in 1944. He also wrote about 20 plays-many of them produced successfully-four books of literary… commentary and criticism, numerous religious essays, and fiction. His Collected Poems is still available, but most of his work in other genres is out of print. Believing strongly in the poet's vocation, in the poet as a prophet, Baxter was also a skilled artist. His work, which is characterized by a technical conservatism and an adherence to formality, reflects his familiarity with a wide range of poets, including the English romantics, Greek and Latin poets, and modernists, such as Yeats, Hopkins, and Hardy.