Alfred Hubert Mendes (1897–1991) was a member of the influential Beacon group of artists, writers and intellectuals in Trinidad in the 1930s. In common with other Beacon writers, including C.L.R. James and Ralph de Boissière, he set out to create a Trinidad-centred literature, and his extensive output of poetry, short stories, novels and journalism bears witness to his dedication to this goal.
The sheer vitality of Mendes’s writing and the huge scope of his interests will attract both scholars and general readers keen to understand what life really was like in the early decades of the twentieth century. Whereas Mendes’s poems and short stories tellingly illustrate the stresses of social life under colonial rule, the journalism contains much thought-provoking discussion of the development of a national identity and political maturity through his intensive examination of Trinidad’s cultural life.
List of Illustrations ix
Editor's Note xi
Introduction Alfred Hubert Mendes, West Indian Writer, 1897–1991 xv
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Chapter 1 Madeira Prologue, 1846–1897 3
Chapter 2 Early Memories, 1897–1912 12
Chapter 3 School in England, 1912–1915 26
Chapter 4 War, 1916 41
Chapter 5 War, 1916–1919 55
Chapter 6 Writing – Trinidad, 1919–1930 66
Chapter 7 Writing – Trinidad, 1931–1933 76
Chapter 8 Writing – New York, 1933–1940 89
Chapter 9 Writing – New York, 1933–1940 99
Chapter 10 New York, 1933–1940 112
Conclusion Trinidad, 1940–1972; Barbados, 1973–1978 132
Appendix A: "Looping the Loop" 155
Appendix B: Letter to Ellen Mendes from Alfred Mendes in Portugal 157
Appendix C: Nine Sonnets "For R—" 159
Appendix D: Extract from the remembrance delivered by Stephen Mendes at his father's funeral service 164
Appendix E: Alfred H. Mendes's Family Tree 166
Chronology 168
Notes 174
Works by Alfred H. Mendes 181
Works Cited 188
Index 190
MICHÈLE LEVY is an independent researcher and academic writer. She has taught at secondary and tertiary levels, and has tutored and lectured in the Department of Literatures in English, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. She is the editor of The Autobiography of Alfred H. Mendes, 1897–1991, two collections of Mendes’s short stories, and an anthology of his stories, poetry and journalism.