Eric Walrond – författare

Eric Walrond is one of the great underexamined figures of the Harlem Renaissance and the Caribbean diaspora. Very little of his later work has been subsequently published or made readily available to American scholars. His writings, set in the Caribbean, the United States, and Europe, discuss imperialism, racism, the role of the black writer, black identity, and immigration-all topics of vital concern today.Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), Walrond moved to New York City in 1918 where he worked briefly for Marcus Garvey and became a protégé of Charles S. Johnson. During that time, he wrote short fiction as well as nonfiction and gained a measure of fame for his 1926 collection, Tropic Death.In Search of Asylum compiles Walrond’s European journalism and later fiction, as well as the pieces he wrote during the 1950s at Roundway Hospital in Wiltshire, England, where he was a voluntary patient. Louis Parascandola and Carl Wade have assembled a collection that at last fills in the biographical gaps in Walrond’s life, providing insights into the contours of his later work and the cultural climates in which he functioned between 1928 and his death in 1966.

"Set in the Caribbean, Panama, the U.S., and England, [Walrond’s] fiction captures the experiences of working-class peoples, often migrants, as they confront the depredations of colonialism, racial prejudice, and economic exploitation. . . . A significant and fascinating collection."--African American Review"Brings together a number of interesting pieces of fiction and non-fiction by this Guyana-born, Barbados- and Panama-bred author."--New West Indian Guide"Forms part of a gradual rehabilitation of Walrond’s work that has been taking place in recent years."--Caribbean Review of Books"Place[s] Walrond squarely on the map. . . . In Search of Asylum could not have arrived at a more propitious time."--sx salon"A substantial step forward for black diaspora and black transnational literary studies."--Gary Edward Holcomb, author of Claude McKay, Code Name Sasha"Fills a significant void in our understanding of the life and literary career of Eric Walrond. By collecting, for the first time, the writings Walrond produced following his departure from the U.S. in 1928, Parascandola and Wade have done scholars a rich service."--Heather Hathaway, author of Caribbean WavesEric Walrond is one of the great underexamined figures of the Harlem Renaissance and the Caribbean diaspora. Very little of his later work has been subsequently published or made readily available to American scholars. His writings, set in the Caribbean, the United States, and Europe, discuss imperialism, racism, the role of the black writer, black identity, and immigration--all topics of vital concern today.Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), Walrond moved to New York City in 1918 where he worked briefly for Marcus Garvey and became a protégé of Charles S. Johnson. During that time, he wrote short fiction as well as nonfiction and gained a measure of fame for his 1926 collection, Tropic Death.In Search of Asylum compiles Walrond’s European journalism and later fiction, as well as the pieces he wrote during the 1950s at Roundway Hospital in Wiltshire, England, where he was a voluntary patient. Louis Parascandola and Carl Wade have assembled a collection that at last fills in the biographical gaps in Walrond’s life, providing insights into the contours of his later work and the cultural climates in which he functioned between 1928 and his death in 1966.

Eric Walrond (1898-1966) was a significant figure in the Harlem Renaissance and New Negro Movement and a seminal writer of Black diasporic life. This anthology brings together a broad sampling of his writings.

Stories by “one of the Harlem Renaissance’s most original writers . . . Gothic surrealism that fascinates and repels with the intensity of a sunstroke” (David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author).   The only published work by Caribbean-born author Eric Walrond, Tropic Death was acclaimed by Langston Hughes for its “hard poetic beauty.” After having lived in Panama at one point during his early years, Walrond considered himself a spiritual native of the country, and in many of these stories, he portrays the diverse mix of workers who labored to build the Panama Canal. He also captures the beauty and danger of nature, especially the sun, in such tropical climates as Guiana and Barbados.   In “Drought,” a man grieves his dead daughter, while in “Panama Gold,” a tragic fire deprives a lonely woman of a chance at love. Two boys risk shark-infested waters to dive for coins thrown by tourists in “The Wharf Rats.” Seven more stories are included in the collection, which ends with the autobiographical “Tropic Death.”   “In prose . . . tough as the hanging vines from which monkeys leap and chatter, and as unsentimental as the blazing sun, ten intimate and body-touching pictures of the West Indies unroll themselves. There is nothing soft about this book. . . . The throbbing life and sun-bright hardness of these pages fascinate me. . . . And the ease and accuracy of Mr. Walrond’s West Indian dialects support one in the belief that he knows very well the people of who he writes.” —Langston Hughes, New York Herald Tribune Book Review   “A book which excites and disturbs, oppresses and enchants the reader.” —The New York Times Book Review

Eric Walrond (1898–1966), in his only book, injected a profound Caribbean sensibility into black literature. His work was closest to that of Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston with its striking use of dialect and its insights into the daily lives of the people around him. Growing up in British Guiana, Barbados, and Panama, Walrond first published Tropic Death to great acclaim in 1926. This book of stories viscerally charts the days of men working stone quarries or building the Panama Canal, of women tending gardens and rearing needy children. Early on addressing issues of skin color and class, Walrond imbued his stories with a remarkable compassion for lives controlled by the whims of nature. Despite his early celebrity, he died in London in 1966 with minimal recognition given to his passing. Arnold Rampersad’s elegant introduction reclaims this classic work and positions Walrond alongside the prominent writers of his age.