Much has been written about James K. Baxter, considered by many to be New Zealand's greatest poet, and his father, Archibald.
As a conscientious objector in World War 1, Archie was hung on a pole like a human scarecrow in Etaples, France, and later sent to a part of the Western front that was heavily shelled.
He later wrote about his life in We Will Not Cease.
But probably few in this country know much about Millicent Baxter, Archie's wife.
To be welcomed then is this biography by Penny Griffith, which painstakingly traces the life of a woman who deserted the right side of the tracks to settle down with a rabbiter, a man whose presence in her life she deliberately sought.
Born in 1888, Millicent Amiel Macmillan Brown was the first daughter of John Macmillan Brown, Professor of English and Classics at Canterbury College, and Helen Connon, principal of Christchurch Girls' High School.
Millicent's father was a martinet.
But despite difficulties, she studied hard and was a high achiever academically.
It was in mid-1918 that she first heard of the man who would change her life.
Millicent read a copy of the letter written by Archie to his father and mother from the battle front in Ypres in March, 1918, and subsequently published in NZ Truth.
"I have suffered to the limit of my endurance, but I will never in my senses surrender to the evil power that has fixed its roots like a cancer on the world,'' he wrote.
She transferred the letter from handbag to handbag. In 1926 she went in search of the Archibald Baxter she had heard so much about.
Returning to Brighton, in Otago, after a stint of rabbiting in Central Otago, Archie met up with Millicent, whose previous visits to see him were fruitless.
Archie was not good-looking but Millicent fell in love.
She loved him in every way, except she lacked a real physical attraction for him.
So on February 12, 1921, only four or five days after they met, they were married at a registrar's office in Dunedin.
Later that year, the professor's daughter who had never learned to cook or housekeep made her new home in a four-roomed cottage with no running water or electricity on a farm at Kuri Bush.
"The lack of conveniences didn't trouble me in the least. Life was delightful ...'', Millicent, aged 33, wrote.
By trial and error, she quickly learnt to make stews, roasts and puddings, eclairs and biscuits.
She was in her element in the new style of life.
Despite their obvious happiness together, life for the couple was somewhat difficult.
There was considerable hostility from the community towards Archie and the couple were often ostracised.
Some in her community found Millicent daunting and others viewed her as a snob.
Her first son, Terence, was born on May 23, 1922.
Millicent was 38 and Archie 44 when James Keir was born on June 29, 1926.
Early in 1930 after almost 10 happy years at Kuri Bush, their farm was sold and the family moved to Brighton.
Griffith goes on to write about Millicent's life in Brighton, where she preferred to spend her time on what really mattered to her: her family, her garden, her books, her alpine plants and her passion for pacifism.
Some people felt put off by Millicent's educated and academic manner.
But she was often disparaged by people who were themselves inverted snobs who perceived her to be above them.
Lenore Baxter, Terence's wife, wrote that Millicent"was very, very kind and very generous, and during the Depression she did a lot of good work, like going around to poor people with blankets and things, which might have seemed a little patronising. But to her it was the right thing to do''.
As made evident in her memoirs, Millicent was exasperated at constantly being acknowledged as an add-on to her mother, father, husband and son.
Millicent, who like Archie had become a Catholic, lived as a widow in Kinsman St, Dunedin, for 13 years until July, 1983.
Suffering dementia, she died on July 3, 1984, aged 96.
Providing much detail, Griffith has portrayed well the characteristics of a woman whose personality cannot be easily pigeonholed.
Naturally enough, much of the book is devoted to analysis of the lives of Millicent's closest relatives, who exercised a bearing on this remarkable woman's life.
• Clarke Isaacs is a former ODT chief of staff.
