Alistair Campbell (poet)

Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, ONZM (born 25 June 1925; died 16 August 2009) was a New Zealand poet, playwright, and novelist. His father was a New Zealand Scot and his mother a Cook Island Maori from Penrhyn Island.

Life
Campbell was born in Rarotonga and spent his childhood on Penrhyn island, the home of his mother, Teu Bosini. His father's name was Jock Campbell. In 1932, when Campbell was seven, his mother died from tuberculosis. The following year, his father also died and he was sent with his two brothers to an orphanage in Dunedin, on New Zealand's South Island.

He lived most of his life in New Zealand, mainly around the Wellington region, and for several decades in Pukerua Bay, Porirua.

Born Alistair Campbell, he later added 'Te Ariki' after going back to the Cook Islands and discovering his grandfather had ties to chiefdom. In his grandfather's honour, Campbell added Te Ariki (the chief) to his name. He attended Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin, and then studied at the University of Otago and Victoria University of Wellington. At University he became good friends with James K. Baxter, another famous New Zealand poet. He became a member of the Wellington Group in 1950s. The group was just an affiliation of a number of writers who mostly shared a common opposition to Allen Curnow's, another notable New Zealand writer, ideas and writings.

His first wife was poet Fleur Adcock, from whom he was later divorced. His second wife, Aline Margaret (Meg) Anderson, was also a poet.

Alistair had a total of 5 children, two with Fleur and the other three with Meg.

From 1976 to 1979, he was the President of the New Zealand branch of PEN-International.

Recognition
His poem, The Return, was set to electronic music by Douglas Lilburn.

Poetry

 * 1950: Mine Eyes Dazzle, Christchurch: Pegasus Press, including "The Return" and "Elegy"
 * 1963: Sanctuary of Spirits
 * 1964: Wild Honey, London: Oxford University Press
 * 1967: Blue Rain: Poems, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
 * 1972: ''Kapiti : Selected Poems 1947-71. Christchurch : Pegasus Press
 * 1975: Dreams, Yellow Lions
 * 1980: The Dark Lord of Savaiki: Collected Poems, Christchurch: Hazard Press
 * 1981: Collected Poems, Hazard, ISBN 1-877393-00-2
 * 1985: Soul Traps, Pukerua Bay: Te Kotare Press
 * 1992: Stone Rain: The Polynesian Strain, Auckland: Hazard Press
 * 1996: Pocket Collected Poems, Christchurch: Hazard Press
 * 1999: Gallipoli & Other Poems, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
 * 2001: Maori Battalion: a poetic sequence, Wellington: Wai-te-ata Press
 * Poets in our youth: four letters in verse, being four letters in verse to John Mansfield Thomson, Harry Orsman, Pat Wilson and James K. Baxter; Wellington: Pemmican Press
 * Death and Tagua
 * Pocket: Collected Poems

Other work

 * 1961: The Happy Summer, a novel for children
 * 1965: The Proprietor, Radio play
 * 1964: The Homecoming, a radio play


 * 1966: The Suicide, a radio play
 * 1970: When the Bough Breaks, a radio play
 * 1984: Island to Island, memoir
 * 1989: ''The Frigate Bird, novel, regional finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize
 * 1991: Sidewinder, novel, Auckland: Reed Books
 * 1993: Tia, novel, Auckland: Reed Books
 * 1999: Fantasy With Witches, novel