Edgar Austin Mittelholzer (1909 – 1965) holds a very special place in Guyanese and West Indian literature – renowned as one of the nation’s most important novelists. He was the founder of social realism in Guyanese fiction and was the first West Indian writer to gain the distinction of making “a pioneering and professional career out of writing novels. . . . The measure of his literary success can be deduced by the translation of several of his 22 novels into at least six European languages” (Juanita Cox).
Mittelholzer was born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana, to a middle class family of mixed ancestry and grew up there where he persevered in writing till the first acceptance of his novel Corentyne Thunder by an English publisher in 1941. He left Guyana to live in different countries, but mostly in Great Britain, followed by Trinidad. He experienced numerous obstacles, first at home in a colonial society vividly painted in such other novels as Sylvia (1953), My Bones and My Flute (1955) and the self published collection Creole Chips (1937), and in the UK where he eventually settled.
This life of Mittelholzer was documented and dramatised in a play, A Pleasant Career (1992) by Michael Gilkes, leading Guyanese playwright, director, poet, film maker, academic and critic. It was the first winner of the Guyana Prize for Drama in 1992 but was never publicly performed until 2025. This stage version.was dramaturged by director and designer Henry Muttoo.
