Frank A. Collymore: A man of the threshold
Frank A. Collymore of Barbados, 1893–1980, was perhaps best known as the editor of Bim, the regional literary magazine in the English-speaking Caribbean. He was also a poet, short story writer, eminent amateur actor, school-teacher and artist. Between 1944 and 1971 Collymore published five collections of poetry and an often reprinted study of ‘Barbadian dialect’. In 1991, a collection of his short stories was published posthumously. In his later years he was often described as a ‘literary genius’ and as ‘The Grand Old Man of West Indian literature’. He won honorary awards and wide recognition in the English-speaking region for his role in the development of Caribbean literature. This journal article is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol26/iss1/17
What Does Mr. Swanzy Want—Shaping or Reflecting? An assessment of Henry Swanzy's contribution to the development of Caribbean Literature
In November 1954; after a period of eight years as editor of the BBC radio programme Caribbean Voices, Henry Swanzy left London for Accra to take up a further appointment in broadcasting. Those eight years established for him a unique position in Caribbean literature. He had presided over a series of regular weekly programmes, at first lasting 20 minutes and then 29 minutes after 1947. These programmes became, perhaps, the most important focus for the development and promotion of the region's literary output. Swanzy estimated that the programmes' first six years introduced to its audience over 150 dfferent contributors from the English-speaking Caribbean. In the life of the programme some 400 stories and poems were broadcast. Listeners were offered stories, poetry, plays and literary criticism beamed through the static of the short wave band and intermittently re-diffused by local commercial radio stations. The programme helped to launch the careers of many authors including a number who have achieved international fame as poets, playwrighfs, artists and musicians; notably, the Nobel Prize winning St.Lucian Derek Walcott, Edward Kamau Brathwaite and George Lamming from Barbados, V. S. Naipaul and the late Sam Selvon from Trinidad, Gloria Escoffery, John Figueroa and the late Andrew Salkey from Jamaica, Wilson Harris and lan McDonald from Guyana and E. M. 'Shake' Keane from St. Vincent. Two volumes of poetry which had been broadcast on the programme were compiled and edited by John Figueroa (1966, 1970).
Shoeless Joe: Fantasy and the Humor of Fellow-Feeling
In his essay on Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, Thomas Carlyle writes of a humor that manifests itself in smile rather than laughter. "Richter is a man of mirth," says Carlyle, whose humor is "capricious . . . quaint . . . [and] heartfelt" (15). The three adjectives represent for Carlyle the essence of what he terms "true humor" because they suggest Richter's enormous respect for humanity. "True humor," he goes on to say, "springs not more from the head than from the heart; it is not contempt, its essence is love; it issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper" (17). These smiles are not Hobbesian smirks of superiority1 but genuine signs of compassion for, sympathy toward, and empathy with the object of the humor. Carlyle further provides a direct link between humor and both pathos and nobility; the link is the smile of the caring man. For Carlyle, this smile is one of "fellow-feeling":