Neville Dawes (16 June 1926 – 13 May 1984) was a novelist and poet born in Nigeria of Jamaican parentage. He was the father of poet and editor Kwame Dawes.
Neville Dawes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Neville Augustus Dawes 16 June 1926 Warri, Nigeria |
| Died | 13 May 1984 (aged 57) |
| Education | Jamaica College |
| Alma mater | Oriel College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Novelist and poet |
| Relatives | Kwame Dawes (son) |
Biography edit
Neville Augustus Dawes was born in Warri, Nigeria, to Jamaican parents Augustus Dawes (a Baptist missionary and teacher) and his wife Laura,[1] and was raised in rural Jamaica,[2] where the family returned when he was three years old.[3] In 1938 he won a scholarship to Jamaica College[3] and subsequently went to Oriel College, Oxford University, where he read English.[4] After graduating he went to teach at Calabar High School in Kingston, Jamaica.
Returning to West Africa in 1956, he took up a teaching post at Kumasi Institute of Technology in Ghana. He was subsequently a lecturer in English at the University of Ghana (1960–70).[4] In 1962 he and his Ghanaian wife Sophia, an artist and social worker, had a son Kwame.[5] In 1971 Dawes returned with his family to Jamaica, where he became the executive director of the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston.[4]
He published two novels (The Last Enchantment and Interim) and a poetry collection, as well as short stories and essays, some of which were broadcast on the BBC programme Caribbean Voices.[6] His poetry was also published in Caribbean literary journals, including Bim, and he was one of the editors of Okyeame, journal of the Ghana Society of Writers.[3]
A collection on his work entitled Fugue and Other Writings was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2012, including poems, short stories, autobiographical writing and critical writing.[6]
Bibliography edit
- Poems — In Sepia (1958)
- The Last Enchantment (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1960; Peepal Tree Press, 2009, ISBN 9781845231170)
- Prolegomena to Caribbean Literature (Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1977)
- Interim (Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1978)
- Fugue and Other Writings (Peepal Tree Press, 2012, ISBN 9781845231095)
Criticism and further reading edit
- Edward Brathwaite, Review of The Last Enchantment, in Bim, vol. 9, no. 33 (July–December 1961), pp. 74–5.
- Edward Brathwaite, "Roots", in Bim, vol. 10, no. 37 (July/December 1963), pp. 10–21.
- George Lamming, "The Last Enchantment" (review), in Race, vol. 2, no. 2 (May 1961), p. 92.
- Basil McFarlane, "Jamaican Novel: A Review of The Last Enchantment", in Jamaica Journal, vol. 9, nos 2 & 3 (1975), pp. 51–2.
- Gerald Moore, The Chosen Tongue: English Writing in the Tropical World (1969), Longman.
References edit
- ^ "Neville Dawes", in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, pp. 141-.
- ^ "Neville Dawes", Peepal Tree Press.
- ^ a b c Barrie Davies, "Dawes, Neville", in Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly, Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Routledge, 2004, p. 346.
- ^ a b c "Dawes, Neville", in Michael Hughes, A Companion to West Indian Literature, Collins, 1979, p. 39.
- ^ Roy Seeger, "Dawes, Kwame", in Tom Mack (ed.), The South Carolina Encyclopedia Guide to South Carolina Writers, University of South Carolina Press, 30 January 2014.
- ^ a b "Fugue and Other Writings" page at Peepal Tree Press.