John Figueroa
John Joseph Maria Figueroa (4 August 1920 – 5 March 1999) was a Jamaican poet and educator. He played a significant role in the development of Anglophone Caribbean literature both as a poet and an anthologist. He contributed to the development of the University College of the West Indies as an early member of staff, and had a parallel career as a broadcaster, working for various media organizations including the BBC. He also taught in Jamaica, Britain, the United States, Nigeria and Puerto Rico. Biography Figueroa was born in Jamaica, the eldest of the 13 children (10 of whom survived infancy) of Blanche Maria Palomino and Rupert Aston Figueroa. He was educated at St George's College, and won a scholarship to attend Holy Cross College, Massachusetts, graduating in 1942. He then taught at St George's College and at Wolmer's School in Jamaica. Blue Mountain Peak, his first collection of poetry, appeared in 1944. In 1946 he went on a British Council fellowship to the University of London to study for a teaching diploma and a master's degree in education. He subsequently taught in some London schools, and spent six years as an English and philosophy lecturer at the Institute of