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John Baxter | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1939-12-14)14 December 1939 (age 85) Randwick, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
John Baxter (born 14 December 1939 inRandwick, New South Wales) is an Australian writer, journalist, and film-maker.
Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his nativeSydney. He has lived in Paris since 1989, where he is married to film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel. They have one daughter.
He began writing science fiction in the early 1960s forNew Worlds,Science Fantasy and other British magazines. His first novel, though serialised in New Worlds asThe God Killers, was published as a book in the US by Ace asThe Off-Worlders. He was Visiting Professor atHollins College in Virginia in 1975-1976. He has written a number of short stories and novels in that genre and a book about science fiction in the movies, as well as editing collections of Australian science fiction.[1]
Baxter has written other works dealing with the movies, including biographies of film personalities, includingFederico Fellini,Luis Buñuel,Steven Spielberg,Stanley Kubrick,Woody Allen,George Lucas andRobert De Niro. He has written a number of documentaries, including a survey of the life and work of the painterFernando Botero. He also co-produced, wrote and presented three television series for theAustralian Broadcasting Commission,Filmstruck,First Take andThe Cutting Room, and was co-editor of the ABC book programme Books And Writing.
In 1973 Baxter published the first critical account of the work of British film makerKen Russell,An Appalling Talent. The book was based on an extended interview with the director and covers his work fromAmelia and the Angel (1958) toThe Boy Friend (1971), while observing the shooting of the filmSavage Messiah (1973) and the state of the British film industry.
In the 1960s, he was a member of theWEA Film Study Group with such notable people asIan Klava,Frank Moorhouse,Michael Thornhill,[2]John Flaus andKen Quinnell. From July 1965 to December 1967 theWEA Film Study Group published the cinema journalFILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter.
For a number of years in the sixties, he was active in theSydney Film Festival, and during the 1980s served in a consulting capacity on a number of film-funding bodies, as well as writing film criticism forThe Australian and other periodicals.[3] Some of his books have been translated into various languages, including Japanese and Chinese.
Since moving to Paris, he has written four books of autobiography,A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict,We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light,Immoveable feast : a Paris Christmas, andThe Most Beautiful Walk in the World : a Pedestrian in Paris.[citation needed]
Since 2007, he has been co-director of the annual Paris Writers Workshop.[citation needed]
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