Grimshaw, Anna

Anna Grimshaw (b. 1956) was an assistant and editor for C.L.R. James--a West Indian writer, teacher and political activist--from 1983 until his death in 1989. Grimshaw, a native of Lancashire, grew up not far from Nelson, the town where James lived when he first arrived in England in 1932. She received her education at Cambridge University--a BA in 1977 and a PhD in Social Anthropology in 1984. Indian writer Farrukh Dhondy, a mutual friend of Grimshaw and James, introduced the pair early in 1983; Grimshaw was hired some months later to help James complete his autobiography, a project on which he had been working with a variety of assistants since the 1970s. The project was unfinished at James' death. Although the autobiography was never completed Grimshaw did help James edit his cricket writings and she provided friendship and aid in his last days. During the final few months of James' life Grimshaw moved into a house across the street from him.

Anna Grimshaw edited, wrote or contributed to a variety of C.L.R. James projects: she edited Cricket by C.L.R. James (Allison and Busby, 1986) and The C.L.R. James Reader (Blackwell, 1991); with Keith Hart she edited and introduced American Civilization (Blackwell, 1993); she also edited and introduced Special Delivery: The Letters of C.L.R. James to Constance Webb, 1939-1948 (Blackwell, 1996); she wrote the foreward for The Nobbie Stories for Children and Adults, (University of Nebraska, 2006); and she edited and introduced a later version of Cricket--Majestic Inning: Writings on Cricket (Aurum Press, 2006).

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