By Juanita Cox
Juanita Cox is a PhD student writing her thesis: ‘Edgar Mittelholzer and the Shaping of his Novels’ at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her interests include Caribbean literature, culture and history and a version of this article will be appearing as a chapter in a book, Caribbean Voices, soon to be published. She is also currently working on an introduction to Corentyne Thunder, Mittelholzer’s first novel, which is due to be republished in 2009. She has lectured in Caribbean Studies at the London Metropolitan University.
“[Literature] is the creation of actual men and women, actually living in an identifiable set of historical circumstances, themselves both the creatures and creators of their times.”
Eldridge. C. (ed.)The Imperial Experience: From Carlyle to Forster
(Macmillan Press: London, 1996) pp xi-xii
Part 1
Edgar Austin Mittelholzer was born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana in 1909 to near-white middle class parents of mixed European and African extraction, both of whom were unable to mask the colour/race prejudice that his swarthy complexion aroused in them. In the late 1920s he made the radically unconventional decision to become a professional writer, much to the deepening dismay of his parents and scorn of New Amsterdam society. By the time he had committed suicide in 1965 through self-immolation, Mittelholzer had over twenty published novels, a travel journal and an autobiography to his credit. Whilst critics, and in particular Seymour, Gilkes and Birbalsingh, have carried out illuminating analytical studies of his novels, no book-length examination of his life and works has as yet been published.
This article hopes to generate renewed interest in Mittelholzer by focusing on an aspect of his literary career that has hitherto been ignored; namely his involvement in the BBC’s Caribbean Voices radio programme. Transcripts of the programmes broadcast between 1945 and 1958, reveal that his relationship with Caribbean Voices spanned the whole period of its existence. He contributed firstly as a writer of short stories and poems; then as reader of submissions for broadcast. As a literary pioneer his works became the focus of critical attention until he later, as an established author, took on the important role of programme editor/presenter (1956-1958). By analysing the contents of these transcripts in conjunction with the behind-the-scenes correspondence, held in the University of Birmingham’s Henry Swanzy Collection, this article aims to reflect upon Mittelholzer’s contribution to the development and evolution of Caribbean literature during the mid-to-late 1940s and 1950s. Attention will also be given to the illuminating insights that these archives provide, particularly with respect to the author’s life, his attitudes to writing, thematic concerns and the shaping of his novels.