Charles Robert Saunders (July 12, 1946May 2020) was an African-American author and journalist, a pioneer of the "sword and soul" literary genre with his Imaro novels.
[Tattrie, Jon.]
The extraordinary inner world of Charles R. Saunders, father of Black 'sword and soul'
" on ''CBC News'', posted September 16, 2020; accessed September 21, 2020. During his long career, he wrote novels, non-fiction,
screenplays and
radio plays
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
.
Life and work
Charles Robert Saunders was born on July 3, 1946, in
Elizabeth, Pennsylvania
Elizabeth is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on the east bank of the Monongahela River, where Pennsylvania Route 51 crosses, upstream (south) of Pittsburgh and close to the county line. The population was 1,493 at the 2010 census ...
, a small town outside
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
.
[Saunders, Charles R. "Autobiography" Saunders' official website](_blank)
accessed June 27, 2011. He later lived in
Norristown Norristown may mean:
* Norristown, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Norristown, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Norristown, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Norristown, Pennsylvania
Norristown is a municipality with home ...
before going to
Lincoln University,
from which he graduated in 1968 with a degree in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
.
Drafted to
fight in Vietnam in 1969,
he instead moved to Canada, living in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
and
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...
before a sojourn in
Ottawa of fourteen
or fifteen years.
In 1985 he moved to
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
,
where he lived for the remainder of his life.
Nova Scotia's black community is largely descended from African Americans who went over to the British side during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
and the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
; they were given freedom and land in Nova Scotia after those wars ended, and created communities such as
Africville.
Saunders worked as a civil servant and teacher until 1989, when he began a career in journalism.
Poet
George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke, (born February 12, 1960) is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known larg ...
, who had written a column on Black issues for the ''
Halifax Daily News
''The Daily News'' was a tabloid newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that was published from 1974 until ceasing operations in February 2008.
History
''The Daily News'' owed its existence to David Bentley, who, along with his wife Diana and Patri ...
'' before moving to Ontario, recommended him to editor Doug MacKay, who after meeting Saunders took a chance and hired him.
Saunders worked the night shift as a
copy editor
Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual of ...
as well as writing his own weekly column on African-Nova Scotian life,
for which he wrote his thoughts out in