Thomas MacDermot (26 June 1870 – 8 October 1933) was 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, novelist, and editor, editing the '' Jamaica Times'' for more than 20 years. He was "probably the first Jamaican writer to assert the claim of the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

to a distinctive place within English-speaking culture".Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to West Indian Literature'', Collins, 1979, p. 75. He also published under the pseudonym Tom Redcam (derived from his surname spelled in reverse)."Redcam, Tom (1870-1933)"
Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds), ''Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English'', Routledge (1994), 2nd edition 2005, p. 1338. He was Jamaica's first

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Early life

Thomas Henry MacDermot was born in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, the third of five children,
"Remembering Tom Redcam: Jamaica’s first Poet Laureate" National Library of Jamaica, 26 June 2017 and spent much of his childhood in Trelawny Parish, Trelawny.

Mervyn Morris Mervyn Eustace Morris OM (born 21 February 1937) is a poet and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. According to educator Ralph Thompson, "In addition to his poetry, which has ranked him among the top West In ...

"Poet Laureate Remarks at Investiture Ceremony
King’s House, 21 May 2014". He was educated at the Falmouth Academy and at the Church of England Grammar School in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

Career

He was a teacher before taking up journalism, at ''The Jamaica Post'', ''

The Daily Gleaner ''The Daily Gleaner'' is a morning daily newspaper serving the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and the upper Saint John River Valley. The paper is published Monday through Saturday and began operating in 1880. In April 2006, the paper switch ...

'' and the '' Jamaica Times'', of which he was editor for 20 years. He worked to promote

Jamaican literature Jamaican literature is internationally renowned, with the island of Jamaica being the home or birthplace of many important authors. One of the most distinctive aspects of Jamaican literature is its use of the local dialect — a variation of Englis ...

through all of his writing, starting a weekly short story contest in the ''Jamaica Times'' in 1899. Notable among the young writers he helped and encouraged are

Claude McKay Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predated ...

and

H. G. de Lisser Herbert George de Lisser CMG (9 December 1878 – 19 May 1944) was a Jamaican journalist and author. He has been called "one of the most conspicuous figures in the history of West Indian literature".Michael Hughes, "De Lisser, Herbert G.", ' ...

. In 1903, MacDermot started the ''All Jamaica Library'', a series of novellas and short stories written by Jamaicans about Jamaica that were reasonably priced to encourage local readers. Alongside his work as a journalist, he wrote two novels. The first, ''Becka’s Buckra Baby'', is said to mark the beginning of modern Caribbean writing."Caribbean Literature", Alexandra Street Press.
/ref> MacDermot's poems were not collected into a single volume until 1951. He was posthumously proclaimed Jamaica's first Poet Laureate for the period 1910-33 by the Jamaican branch of the Poetry League. MacDermot retired because of illness in 1922.

Death

He died in an English nursing home in 1933, aged 63.

Bibliography

* ''Becka's Buckra Baby'' (1903), Times Printery, Jamaica. * ''One Brown Girl And ¼'' (1909), Times Printery, Jamaica. * ''Orange Valley and Other Poems'' (1951), Kingston, Jamaica: Pioneer Press.

References

External links

''Becka’s Buckra Baby''
from the

Digital Library of the Caribbean The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is an international digital library operated collaboratively by the contributing partners. Partners Current partners continue to grow on a regular basis and are listed on thdLOC Partner Page Partners in ...

(1904)
''One Brown Girl and - a Jamaica Story''
from the

(1909) *Also in the ''All Jamaica Library'', but not written by Thomas MacDermot
''Maroon Medicine,''
by E. A. Dodd (listed as E. Snod) from the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdermot, Thomas 20th-century Jamaican poets Jamaican Poets Laureate Jamaican male poets 20th-century male writers 20th-century Jamaican novelists Jamaican male novelists 1870 births 1933 deaths