Place of birth
Jamaica
National identity
Jamaica
DOB
Gender
Male
Short biography
Victor Stafford Reid was born in Kingston Jamaica in 1913 into the relatively well-to-do family of a businessman. He credited his mother, a skilled story-teller, as a major influence on his writing. He worked as a farm overseer, journalist, newspaper editor and later in his life held several government posts.
He travelled widely, but never left Jamaica for long. His first novel, New Day (1949) was a landmark in Caribbean writing for its use of a poetic modification of Jamaican nation language as the language of fiction, and its broad historical sweep announced the Jamaican people's urge to sweep away colonialism. His second novel, The Leopard (1958), written before Reid had in fact visited Africa, was a major artistic statement of the Anglophone Caribbean's belated involvement with Africa. He wrote one further historical novel, The Jamaicans (1979) and four novels for children, Sixty-Five, The Young Warriors, Peter of Mount Ephraim and Nanny-Town.
He died in 1987.
Titles featuring V. S. Reid
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