Life and works

Peter Jacobson began writing poetry at around the age of 15. While he was a student at the University of Canterbury

University of Canterbury

The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...

, he contributed verse to three issues of Canterbury Lambs, published by the Canterbury University Literary Club between 1946 and 1949.

Jacobson is known for two volumes of poetry: "Poems" (1985), with illustrations by Michael Smither

Michael Smither

Michael Duncan Smither, CNZM is a New Zealand painter and composer.He was born in New Plymouth and was educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School and Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland...

, and "The Unfashionable Goddess" (1995) with illustrations by Lisa Barbour.

Commenting on how The Unfashionable Goddess had come into being, Jacobson said: "I like writing lyric poetry - although writing lyric love poetry is definitely not the thing in New Zealand at the moment."

Seven poems from the collection have been set for low voice and piano by composer Ivan Bootham

Ivan Bootham

Ivan Bootham is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, poet and composer.- Life and literary works :Ivan Bootham was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, in 1939, and migrated to New Zealand as a teenager, working in a variety of jobs in provincial centres...

 in the song cycle "For One Who Went Away". Bootham said that besides the touches of surreal magic realism

Magic realism

Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...

 in Jacobson's lyric poetry, he also wrote poetry on social/political topics that was bitingly satirical.

He was described by hs daughter, journalist Julie Jacobson, as a man who "despised convention, and made sure everybody knew it. . . We grew up surrounded by his books, his poetry, his music and his cigar smoke. There was always an overgrown tangle of garden. . . Religion, like politics and trees, was a favourite topic of conversation or confrontation. Dad called himself variously a pantheist, an atheist and a humanist."

After a career in the insurance industry in such places as Greymouth

Greymouth

Greymouth is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coast's inhabitants...

, New Plymouth

New Plymouth

New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after Plymouth, Devon, England, from where the first English settlers migrated....

, and Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, Peter Jacobson retired in Akaroa

Akaroa

Akaroa is a village on Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand, situated within a harbour of the same name—the name Akaroa is Kāi Tahu Māori for 'Long Harbour'.- Overview :...

 with his wife Jeanette, who was also a poet and wrote under the name J. Esther Broun.

He was a friend of the New Zealand painter Toss Woollaston

Toss Woollaston

Sir Mountford Tosswill "Toss" Woollaston was one of the most important New Zealand painters of the 20th century.Born in Toko, Taranaki on April 11, 1910, Woollaston studied art at the Canterbury School of Art in Christchurch...

.