Dear Editor,
In 1970 when Victor Ramraj, a Guyanese, began teaching in the Department of English, at the University of Calgary in Canada, I began my teaching career in the Department of English at York University in Toronto. At the time, we both taught Canadian and Commonwealth literature, a new field that comprised writing by authors from former British colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean as well as from former dominions like Australia and Canada.
As an example of his pioneering scholarship, when he had the opportunity, in 1977, Victor guest-edited an entire issue of the University of Calgary journal Ariel with essays on West Indian literature, showing his originality and willingness to promote West Indian literature, within the field of Commonwealth literature, as it was about to take on the new name of Post-colonial literature. Later, in perhaps his single most striking contribution to literary studies, Victor edited Ariel with distinction from 1990 to 2001.
Besides his teaching and publications, many of which consisted of essays that originated in presentations that he gave to conferences all over the world, Victor published a book on the Jewish-Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler whose work had formed the subject of his PhD thesis at the University of New Brunswick. But the most popular of his publications, A Concert of Voices: An Anthology of World Writing in English (1995) ran into two editions.
I am personally indebted to Victor for generously inviting me to contribute an essay to his guest-edition of Ariel in 1977, and for serving as External Examiner for one of my PhD students. In addition to his achievement as a teacher, scholar, author, editor and administrator, he was generous to a fault, professionally cooperative, socially affable and a loyal friend. His loss will be most deeply felt by his wife Ruby and their son and daughter, but also by colleagues in Guyana, the Caribbean, Canada and in academic circles world wide.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Birbalsingh