Sam Selvon

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Samuel "Sam" Selvon, born in 1923, died on April 16th, 1994.

In both plot and dialogue, his 1956 book The Lonely Londoners is groundbreaking in its use of creolised English, or "nation terms."

Life and work

Samuel Dickson Selvon was born in San Fernando, Trinidad, and was sixth of seven children. His father, a first-generation Christian Tamil immigrant from Madras, was a Christian Anglo-Indian, and his mother was a Christian Anglo-Indian. His maternal grandfather was Scottish and his maternal grandmother, An Indian. He was educated at Naparima College, San Fernando, before moving to work at the age of 15. During the Second World War, he served as a wireless operator with the local branch of the Royal Naval Reserve from 1940 to 1945. From 1945 to 1950, he worked with the Trinidad Guardian as a reporter and for a short time on the Trinidad Guardian's literary page. He began writing stories and descriptive pieces in this period, mainly under a variety of pseudonyms, including Michael Wentworth, Esses, Ack-Ack, and Big Buffer. Much of this early writing is to be found in Foreday Morning (eds Kenneth Ramchand and Susheila Nasta, 1989).

Selvon moved to London, England, where he did menial jobs later on, eventually serving as a clerk for the Indian Embassy, while writing in his spare time. His short stories and poetry appeared in various publications, including the London Magazine, New Statesman, and The Nation. He also worked with the BBC in London, directing two television scripts, Anansi the Spiderman, and Home Sweet India.

Selvon was a fellow in creative writing at the University of Dundee from 1975 to 1977. Selvon moved to Alberta, Canada, in the late 1970s, where he began teaching creative writing as a visiting professor at the University of Victoria. He worked as a janitor at the University of Calgary in Alberta for a few months before becoming writer-in-residence there. During his stay in Canada, he was largely ignored by the Canadian literary establishment, with his books receiving no accolades.

Selvon died of respiratory failure as a result of severe bronchopneumonia and chronic lung disease on Thursday at Piarco International Airport; his remains were subsequently laid to rest at the University of the West Indies cemetery in St Augustine, Trinidad.

Selvon married twice: in 1947 to Draupadi Persaud, with whom he had one child, and in 1963 to Althea Daroux, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

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