James Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157841
- eISBN:
- 9780231538619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157841.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter discusses the varied dimensions of Walrond's short story collection, Tropic Death, as a compelling tome of black transnational fiction. The stories therein contain elements that confound ...
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This chapter discusses the varied dimensions of Walrond's short story collection, Tropic Death, as a compelling tome of black transnational fiction. The stories therein contain elements that confound the North American reader—his intended audience—even as they sought to assert the Caribbean experience. Walrond likewise abhorred what he felt was a tendency to disguise sociological tracts as novels, and instead introduced supernatural elements into plausible plots. In one sense then, Tropic Death delivered the “stunning blow” of an alternate Caribbean truth but, in another sense, it contested truth telling itself. In many ways Walrond pursued a certain literary fashion—ostentatious in its technique, elliptical in its storytelling—yet he also confounded convention, turning the Caribbean picturesque on its head, or more precisely on its ear.Less
This chapter discusses the varied dimensions of Walrond's short story collection, Tropic Death, as a compelling tome of black transnational fiction. The stories therein contain elements that confound the North American reader—his intended audience—even as they sought to assert the Caribbean experience. Walrond likewise abhorred what he felt was a tendency to disguise sociological tracts as novels, and instead introduced supernatural elements into plausible plots. In one sense then, Tropic Death delivered the “stunning blow” of an alternate Caribbean truth but, in another sense, it contested truth telling itself. In many ways Walrond pursued a certain literary fashion—ostentatious in its technique, elliptical in its storytelling—yet he also confounded convention, turning the Caribbean picturesque on its head, or more precisely on its ear.
James Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157841
- eISBN:
- 9780231538619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157841.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter discusses the latter part of Walrond's life in Harlem, even as it explores the writer's reasons for leaving the United States following the positive reception and success he'd obtained ...
More
This chapter discusses the latter part of Walrond's life in Harlem, even as it explores the writer's reasons for leaving the United States following the positive reception and success he'd obtained from the publication of his short story collection, Tropic Death. Walrond had plenty of opportunities to advance his career at this stage. He straddled the color line, interpreting developments in African-American culture for white readers and providing a “Negro” perspective on white depictions of his race. Yet Walrond sought to pursue his agenda with another work of fiction—The Big Ditch—by applying for a fellowship that would soon take him abroad.Less
This chapter discusses the latter part of Walrond's life in Harlem, even as it explores the writer's reasons for leaving the United States following the positive reception and success he'd obtained from the publication of his short story collection, Tropic Death. Walrond had plenty of opportunities to advance his career at this stage. He straddled the color line, interpreting developments in African-American culture for white readers and providing a “Negro” perspective on white depictions of his race. Yet Walrond sought to pursue his agenda with another work of fiction—The Big Ditch—by applying for a fellowship that would soon take him abroad.
James Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157841
- eISBN:
- 9780231538619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157841.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter discusses Walrond's final years, which were spent in a London radically changed after World War II. He made the acquaintance of Erica Marx, who needed help with a “Negro poetry” ...
More
This chapter discusses Walrond's final years, which were spent in a London radically changed after World War II. He made the acquaintance of Erica Marx, who needed help with a “Negro poetry” performance she wished to stage in London, the first event of its kind in England. The project rekindled his sense of involvement at the leading edge of a black cultural initiative, even as it faced difficulties in this new London—one in which race relations seemed to have declined over the years. More notable during the latter years of his life was the possibility of a reprint of his short story collection, Tropic Death, published with a new dedication for his three daughters. He would never live to see it in print, but one could not help but think that the prospect of its reissue was a kind of vindication.Less
This chapter discusses Walrond's final years, which were spent in a London radically changed after World War II. He made the acquaintance of Erica Marx, who needed help with a “Negro poetry” performance she wished to stage in London, the first event of its kind in England. The project rekindled his sense of involvement at the leading edge of a black cultural initiative, even as it faced difficulties in this new London—one in which race relations seemed to have declined over the years. More notable during the latter years of his life was the possibility of a reprint of his short story collection, Tropic Death, published with a new dedication for his three daughters. He would never live to see it in print, but one could not help but think that the prospect of its reissue was a kind of vindication.
James Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157841
- eISBN:
- 9780231538619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157841.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This concluding chapter meditates on Walrond's career, remarking on the fact that Tropic Death did not aptly represent the totality of it. He was not the first West Indian in Panama, the first ...
More
This concluding chapter meditates on Walrond's career, remarking on the fact that Tropic Death did not aptly represent the totality of it. He was not the first West Indian in Panama, the first Caribbean arrival to New York, the first “Negro” in Paris, nor the first of London's “coloured” colonials—but he managed to compress these paradigmatic lines of flight into a single, extraordinary career, and the unusual perspective he acquired was necessarily comparative and transnational. Even as we recognize in Eric Walrond incipient forms of familiar contemporary identities and communities, we should also consider the “historical mutilation” of the anticolonial struggles, transnational periodical formations, aesthetic movements, and political solidarities that animated Walrond's work. He was not as prolific as some of his peers, but he was far more prolific than many realized.Less
This concluding chapter meditates on Walrond's career, remarking on the fact that Tropic Death did not aptly represent the totality of it. He was not the first West Indian in Panama, the first Caribbean arrival to New York, the first “Negro” in Paris, nor the first of London's “coloured” colonials—but he managed to compress these paradigmatic lines of flight into a single, extraordinary career, and the unusual perspective he acquired was necessarily comparative and transnational. Even as we recognize in Eric Walrond incipient forms of familiar contemporary identities and communities, we should also consider the “historical mutilation” of the anticolonial struggles, transnational periodical formations, aesthetic movements, and political solidarities that animated Walrond's work. He was not as prolific as some of his peers, but he was far more prolific than many realized.
James Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157841
- eISBN:
- 9780231538619
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157841.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This book profiles Eric Walrond (1898–1966), the writer, journalist, and critic, whose short story collection, Tropic Death, was one of the first efforts by a black author to depict Caribbean lives ...
More
This book profiles Eric Walrond (1898–1966), the writer, journalist, and critic, whose short story collection, Tropic Death, was one of the first efforts by a black author to depict Caribbean lives and voices in American fiction. It restores Walrond to his proper place as a luminary of the Harlem Renaissance, situates Tropic Death within the author's broader corpus, and positions the work as a catalyst and driving force behind the New Negro literary movement in America. The book follows Walrond from the West Indies to Panama, New York, France, and finally England. It recounts his relationships with New Negro authors such as Countée Cullen, Charles S. Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, and Gwendolyn Bennett, as well as the white novelist Carl Van Vechten. It also highlights Walrond's involvement with Marcus Garvey's journal Negro World and the National Urban League journal, Opportunity, and examines the writer's work for mainstream titles, including Vanity Fair. The book also shows how, in 1929, Walrond severed ties with Harlem, but did not disappear. It explains that he went on to contribute to the burgeoning anti-colonial movement and print culture centered in England and fueled by C. L. R. James, George Padmore, and other Caribbean expatriates.Less
This book profiles Eric Walrond (1898–1966), the writer, journalist, and critic, whose short story collection, Tropic Death, was one of the first efforts by a black author to depict Caribbean lives and voices in American fiction. It restores Walrond to his proper place as a luminary of the Harlem Renaissance, situates Tropic Death within the author's broader corpus, and positions the work as a catalyst and driving force behind the New Negro literary movement in America. The book follows Walrond from the West Indies to Panama, New York, France, and finally England. It recounts his relationships with New Negro authors such as Countée Cullen, Charles S. Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, and Gwendolyn Bennett, as well as the white novelist Carl Van Vechten. It also highlights Walrond's involvement with Marcus Garvey's journal Negro World and the National Urban League journal, Opportunity, and examines the writer's work for mainstream titles, including Vanity Fair. The book also shows how, in 1929, Walrond severed ties with Harlem, but did not disappear. It explains that he went on to contribute to the burgeoning anti-colonial movement and print culture centered in England and fueled by C. L. R. James, George Padmore, and other Caribbean expatriates.
