Samuel Selvon (1923–1994)
Author of The Lonely Londoners
About the Author
Largely self-educated, Selvon was first a poet, later a journalist, and then a professional writer. In 1946 he became an editor at the Guardian Weekly in Trinidad. He left for England in 1950, where he wrote and published his first novel, A Brighter Sun (1952). This novel depicts the struggle of show more the protagonist, a newly married Indian peasant, to adapt to life in a suburban area. In Turn Again Tiger (1958), a sequel to his highly successful first novel, the protagonist of A Brighter Sun returns to his community with a deeper sense of place. Both novels explore his relations to his origins and the various layers of Trinidadian society. Moses Ascending (1975) is a humorous satire on the situation of the West Indian in London. Although his roots are in the nineteenth-century novel, Selvon has created a personal literary language out of the fusion of standard English with Creole folk language, just as he has joined the techniques of European fiction to the West Indian rhythms. Though he now lives in Calgary, Canada, Selvon continues to write about West Indians with humor and sensitivity and tries to communicate his view that all West Indians---in spite of racial diversity---have a common identity. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Samuel Selvon
Associated Works
The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories: Reissue (Oxford Books of Prose) (1999) — Contributor — 96 copies, 1 review
The Penguin Book of Migration Literature: Departures, Arrivals, Generations, Returns (2019) — Contributor — 82 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Selvon, Samuel Dickson
- Birthdate
- 1923-05-20
- Date of death
- 1994-04-16
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Birthplace
- San Fernando, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago
- Places of residence
- Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago (birth)
Port of Spain, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago (death)
Canada
London, England, UK - Occupations
- novelist
short-story writer
Members
Reviews
Moses Migrating (Drumbeats) by Samuel Selvon
Highly entertaining, funny but dated. Moses leaves his London house in charge of his friends to collect rent for him and returns to visit his Tanty in Trinidad, whilst staying at the Hilton there during the carnival season. The start of the book includes a letter Moses composes to Enoch Powell requesting his "kind offer" to subsidise black immigrants returning to their homelands, his attempt to get a passport, his travel by car from London to Plymouth, and the boat trip to the Caribbean. The front cover of this book is Moses in his costume for the carnival itself. I loved reading about the Trinidad culture, the drink "Mauby" drink, the mythological Soucouyant, and the Carnival. After reading this final novel in Selvon's London series, I discovered he also wrote a radio play "Eldorado West One" about Moses.… (more)
Lists
Big Jubilee List (1)
Black Authors (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 21
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 1,300
- Popularity
- #19,757
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 40
- ISBNs
- 62
- Languages
- 2
- Favorited
- 7