Selvon, Samuel

Samuel Selvon, author of novels, plays, film, television, and radio, was born in 1923 in South Trinidad to an Indian father and an Indian/Scottish mother. He grew up in Trinidad's multi-racial society and graduated from San Fernando's Naparima College in 1938.

Selvon began writing fiction and poetry while he served in the Royal Navy Reserve during World War II. After the war, he began his literary career as the fiction editor of the Trinity Guardian's literary magazine until he immigrated to England in 1950.

In London, his short stories and poetry were published in various journals and newspapers, including London Magazine, New Statesman, and The Nation. His first novel, A Brighter Sun, was published by Wingate Press in 1952, and since then he has published several other novels, including The Lonely Londoners (1956), I Hear Thunder (1963), The Plains of Caroni (1970), Moses Ascending (1975), and El Dorado West One (1988). Selvon's works chronicle the West Indian experience in England with recurring themes of alienation, discrimination, and racial tension.

Selvon has also had success with his writings for other media. He worked extensively with the British Broadcasting Corporation during the 1960s and 1970s to produce two television scripts, Anansi the Spider Man and Home, Sweet India, numerous radio programs, and a film version of The Lonely Londoners.

In addition to these accomplishments, Selvon has held a series of university appointments in the Caribbean, Great Britain, and North America. He has also received numerous awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships (1955, 1968), Trinidad's Humming Bird Medal for Literature (1969), and an honorary doctorate from the University of Warwick (1989).

Selvon married Draupadi Persuad in 1947, with whom he has one child, and Althea Nesta Daroux in 1963, with whom he has three children. He moved to Canada in 1978 where he currently resides.

From the guide to the Samuel Selvon Papers TXRC96-A44., 1946-1975, (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin)