{"id":544,"date":"2012-06-15T19:35:06","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T19:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/samuel-selvon\/"},"modified":"2024-08-12T12:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T16:15:51","slug":"selvon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/selvon\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Selvon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Samuel Selvon was born in San Fernando, Trinidad in 1923. Following the Second World War, he worked in Port of Spain as a journalist for the Trinidad Guardian<\/span><\/em>. He lived in Great Britain from 1950 to 1978, a period during which he published most of his novels and wrote radio scripts that were broadcast by the BBC. In 1978, he moved to Canada where he lived until his death in 1994 during a return trip to Trinidad. In 2012 the NALIS (National Library of Trinidad and Tobago) posthumously awarded him a Lifetime Literary Award.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction<\/h3>\n

A Brighter Sun<\/h3>\n

London: Longman Trade, 1979.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction<\/h3>\n

Housing Lark: A Novel<\/h3>\n

Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1990.
\nPR9272.9 .S4 H68 1990<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (from its website)<\/h4>\n

Battersby, the hero of Selvon\u2019s fifth novel, is a West Indian exile in London who encounters both hardships and amusing situations in his search for adequate and reasonably priced shelter. In Housing Lark<\/span> Selvon explores the plight of the West Indian in the \u201cMother Country,\u201d and the exiles\u2019 interactions with English women, the British in general, and each other. First published in 1965.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction<\/h3>\n

An Island is a World<\/h3>\n

Toronto: TSAR, 1993.
\nPS8587 .E5 I85 1993<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Fiction<\/h3>\n

The Lonely Londoners<\/h3>\n

With an introduction by Kenneth Ramchand.
\nHarlow, Essex: Longman, 1985, c1956.
\nPS8587 .E5 L6 1985<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (from its website)<\/h4>\n

… from the brilliant, sharp, witty pen of Sam Selvon, this is a classic award-winning novel of immigrant life in London in the 1950s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction<\/h3>\n

Moses Ascending<\/h3>\n

London: Penguin, 2008, c1975.
\nPS8587 .E5 M67 2008<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction<\/h3>\n

Moses Migrating: A Novel<\/h3>\n

Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1983.<\/p>\n

With an introduction by Susheila Nasta.
\nBoulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009.
\nPS8587 .E5 M6 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n

It has been more than 25 years since Moses Aloetta became one of the “Lonely Londoners” in the novel of that name. Now–though an avowed Anglophile–he hankers for Trinidad, for sunshine, Carnival, and rum punch. With characteristic irony and delicacy of touch, Sam Selvon tells the story of Moses’s reencounter with his native land.<\/p>\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n

1984 Georges Bugnet Award for Novel-Alberta Literary Awards<\/a> (Writers’ Guild of Alberta)(Winner)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction<\/h3>\n

Those Who Eat the Cascadura<\/h3>\n

Toronto: TSAR, 1988.
\nPS8587 .E5 T46 1990<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction<\/h3>\n

Turn Again Tiger<\/h3>\n

Introduction and study questions by Sandra Pouchet Paquet.
\nLondon: Heinemann, 1979, c1958
\nPS8587 .E5 T87 1979<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n

[This] is a sequel to Samuel Selvon’s first novel, A Brighter Sun<\/em>.\u00a0 The chief character remains the same and the themes of the earlier work are extended as well.\u00a0 A Brighter Sun<\/em> is set in the suburban village of Barataria.\u00a0 It explores the growing consciousness of Tiger, a newly arrived youth from an estate village in the sugar belt of Chaguanas.\u00a0 This novel is concerned with Tiger’s quest for manhood and with the process of creolization which Tiger and his young bride, Urmilla, undergo in multi-racial Barataria away from the influence of their parents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Fiction (Short stories)<\/h3>\n

Ways of Sunlight<\/h3>\n

With a critical introduction by Jane Grant
\nHarlow, Essex: Longman, 1987, c1957.
\nPS8587 .E5 W3 1987<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n

The master-storyteller turns his pen to rural village life in Trinidad: gossip and rivalry between the village washerwomen; toiling cane-cutters reaping their meagre harvest; superstitious old Ma Procop protecting the fruit of her mango tree with magic. With equal wit and sensitivity, he reflects the depression of hard times in London, where people live in cold, damp basements, hustling for survival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Drama<\/h3>\n

Eldorado West One<\/h3>\n

Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 1988.
\nPS8587 .E5 E43 1988<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Drama<\/h3>\n

Highway in the Sun And Other Plays<\/h3>\n

Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2008.
\nPR9272.9 .S4 H5 1991<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Selected Criticism and Interpretation<\/h3>\n

Agarwal, Supriya. “Conflict and Resolution: Selvon’s The Plains of Caroni.” In Writers of the Caribbean Diaspora: Shifting Homelands, Travelling Identities<\/span><\/em>. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2008, 152-163.
\nPR9205 .W75 2008<\/a><\/p>\n

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Beyond Calypso: Re-reading Samuel Selvon<\/span><\/em>. Edited by Malachi McIntosh. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, 2016.
\nPS8587.E5 Z24 2016<\/a><\/p>\n

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Clarke, Austin. A Passage Back Home: A Personal Reminiscence of Samuel Selvon<\/span><\/em>. Toronto: Exile Editions, 1994.
\nPS8587.E5 Z588 1994<\/a><\/p>\n

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Critical Perspectives on Sam Selvon.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Edited by Susheila Nasta. Washington: Three Continents Press, 1988.
\nPS8587 .E5 Z6 1988<\/a><\/p>\n

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Forbes, Curdella. From Nation to Diaspora: Samuel Selvon, George Lamming and the Cultural Performance of Gender<\/span><\/em>. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2005.
\nPR9210 .F67 2005<\/a><\/p>\n

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Joseph, Margaret Paul. “Caliban the Calypsonian: The Ballad of Sam Selvon” In Caliban in Exile: The Outsider in Caribbean Fiction<\/span><\/em>. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.
\nPR9205.4 .J67 1992<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mathur, Charu. “Creating an Independent Reality: Sam Selvon’s An Island is a World.” In Writers of the Caribbean Diaspora: Shifting Homelands, Travelling Identities<\/span><\/em>. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2008, 164-174.
\nPR9205 .W75 2008<\/a><\/p>\n

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Royar, M. Supriya. “Race of Races in Sam Selvon’s Those Who Eat the Cascadura.” In Writers of the Caribbean Diaspora: Shifting Homelands, Travelling Identities<\/span><\/em>. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2008, 142-151.
\nPR9205 .W75 2008<\/a><\/p>\n

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Salick, Roydon. Samuel Selvon<\/span><\/em>. Tavistock, England: Northcote\/British Council, 2013.
\nPR9272.9 .S4 Z885 2013<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sindoni, Maria Grazia. Creolizing Culture: A Study on Sam Selvon’s Work<\/span><\/em>. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2006.
\nPS8587 .E5 Z74 2006<\/a><\/p>\n

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Wong, Mitali P. and Zia Hasan. “Identity and the Indo-Caribbean Experience: Themes, Genres, and Characters in the Fiction of V.S. Naipaul and Samuel Selvon.” In The Fiction of South Asians in North America and the Caribbean<\/span><\/em>. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2004.
\nPS153 .S68 W66 2004<\/a><\/p>\n

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Wyke, Clement H. Sam Selvon’s Dialectal Style and Fictional Strategy<\/span><\/em>. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1991.
\nElectronic book <\/a>(Access restricted to the Toronto Metropolitan University community)<\/p>\n

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Zehnder, Martin, ed. Something Rich and Strange: Selected Essays on Sam Selvon<\/span><\/em>. Leeds: Peepal Tree, 2003.
\nPS8587 .E5 Z76 2003 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Links<\/h3>\n

Publisher Longman (Pearson Educational Ltd.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Lynne Reinner Publishers<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher Peepal Tree Press <\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher Mawenzi House<\/a> (formerly TSAR)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samuel Selvon was born in San Fernando, Trinidad in 1923. Following the Second World War, he worked in Port of Spain as a journalist for the Trinidad Guardian. He lived in Great Britain from 1950 to 1978, a period during … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-544","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18663,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/544\/revisions\/18663"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}