Edward Alston Cecil Baugh (born 10 January 1936) is a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n poet and scholar, recognised as an authority on the work of Derek Walcott, whose ''Selected Poems'' (2007) Baugh edited, having in 1978 authored the first book-length study of the Nobel-winning poet's work, ''Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision''.

Biography

Edward Baugh was born on 10 January 1936 in

Port Antonio Port Antonio is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for b ...

, Jamaica, the son of Edward Percival Baugh, purchasing agent, and Ethel Maud Duhaney-Baugh."Edward Alston Cecil Baugh", ''The West Indian Encyclopedia''
. He began writing poetry at

Titchfield High School Titchfield High School is a secondary high school in Port Antonio, Jamaica, in the northern part of Portland Parish. The school was established in January 1786, and is the fifth-oldest high school in the country, after Wolmer's Boys', one of the Wo ...

. He won a scholarship to study English literature at the

University College of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

and later did postgraduate studies at Queen's University in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, and at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1964. He taught at the

Cave Hill campus Cave Hill, St. Michael, is a suburban area situated in the parish of Saint Michael, Barbados. It is located about 4 km north-west of the capital city Bridgetown, along the west coast of Barbados. The University of the West Indies at Cave H ...

of the University of the West Indies from 1965 to 1967, then at the university's Mona campus from 1968 to 2001, eventually being appointed professor of English in 1978 and public orator in 1985. He has also held visiting appointments at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, Dalhousie University,

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...

, Flinders University, Macquarie University,

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

and

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

. In 2012 he was awarded a Gold

Musgrave Medal The Musgrave Medal is an annual award by the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of achievement in art, science, and literature.Webster, Valerie J. (2000), ''Awards, Honors & Prizes, Volume 2'', Gale Group, , p. 447. Originally conceived in 1889 a ...

by the

Institute of Jamaica The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation:Mervyn Morris, of the 2021 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award.

Scholarly works

His scholarly publications include ''West Indian Poetry 1900–1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation'' (1971); ''Critics on Caribbean Literature'' (1978); ''Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision'' (1978), the first book-length study of Walcott's work; and an annotated edition of Walcott’s ''Another Life'' (2004), with Colbert Nepaulsingh. ''Chancellor, I Present'' (1998) collects a number of the addresses Baugh delivered as UWI's public orator on the occasion of the presentation on honorary degrees.

Poetry

Baugh's poems appeared in various magazines and anthologies years before the publication of his first collection, ''A Tale from the Rainforest'' (1988). This was followed by ''It Was the Singing'' (2000) and ''Black Sand: New and Selected Poems'' (2013).

Selected bibliography

* ''Black Sand: New and Selected Poems'' (2013) * ''It Was the Singing'' (2000) * ''I Was a Teacher Too'' (1991) * ''A Tale from the Rainforest'' (1988) * ''Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision: "Another Life"'' (1978) * ''Critics on Caribbean Literature'' (1978) * ''West Indian Poetry 1900–1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation'' (1971)

References

External links

"Interview with Jamaican poet, Edward Baugh", Commonwealth Writers.
21 April 2012. * . {{DEFAULTSORT:Baugh, Edward 20th-century Jamaican poets Jamaican male poets 1936 births Living people Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of London University of the West Indies alumni Jamaican academics University of the West Indies academics Jamaican literary critics Recipients of the Musgrave Medal 21st-century Jamaican poets 20th-century male writers 21st-century male writers People from Port Antonio