Edward Ricardo Braithwaite is a Guyanese novelist and scientist who served as writer, teacher and diplomat during his long career. Alim Hosein, who researched his life, points out that there are different dates provided in different sources about his birth, so it is not widely known that he was actually born on June 27, 1912. He is currently living in Washington DC.
ER Braithwaite, as he is known, came from a privileged family, which may be confirmed by the fact that he attended Queen’s College in Georgetown, and for a black student in those years, that, and his higher education suggest privilege indeed. According to an internet source, he grew up “surrounded by education,” moving on to Cambridge University and a doctorate in physics. Like so many colonials in the former British Empire, he served in World War II, but his later career as a writer does not reflect the mind of a colonial, but was driven by far more radical sentiments including a consistent resistance to colonialism and the ‘othering’ treatment accorded to minorities.
While he did write scientific texts, it was his literary career that brought him to prominence and his best known contribution is that which he