What do you think?
Rate this book
A Swarthy Boy
The first-born, a swarthy boy - not a very auspicious start for the son of a negrophobe; with a mother who mollycoddled her children unmercifully, but who was as severe as she was sentimental and meted out punishment with a leather thong called Tickle Toby; against the background of the middle class in British Guiana, with its conventions and taboos. The right school had to be chosen, the right relationship with the neighbours established. Edgar survived the rigidity of his upbringing, the terryfying Aunt Eugenie with whom he had his first schooling, and the many humiliations he suffered from his mother.
His childhood was not unhappy, for he was naturally resilient. He was also serious and brooding and everything he did he attacked with intensity - stamp collecting, altar serving at church, scouting and reading. Now he vividly evokes that narrow world which he passionately felt and brilliantly remembers.
He left school at seventeen, but with no "godfather" to get him into the Civil Service, he had to wait for a post. While he waited, he started to write in earnest. With characteristic determination he bombarded English publishers with story after story. After each repulse he stormed the literary bastions again. And so "A Swarthy Boy" becomes the first chapter in the story of an important novelist.
His childhood was not unhappy, for he was naturally resilient. He was also serious and brooding and everything he did he attacked with intensity - stamp collecting, altar serving at church, scouting and reading. Now he vividly evokes that narrow world which he passionately felt and brilliantly remembers.
He left school at seventeen, but with no "godfather" to get him into the Civil Service, he had to wait for a post. While he waited, he started to write in earnest. With characteristic determination he bombarded English publishers with story after story. After each repulse he stormed the literary bastions again. And so "A Swarthy Boy" becomes the first chapter in the story of an important novelist.
157 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
Edgar Mittelholzer
37 books41 followersEdgar Mittelholzer is considered the first West Indian novelist, i.e. even though there were writers who wrote about Caribbean themes before him, he was the first to make a successful professional life out of it. Born in Guyana (then British Guiana) of Afro-European heritage, he began writing in 1929 and self-published his first book, Creole Chips, in 1937.
Mittelholzer left Guyana for Trinidad in 1941, eventually migrating to England in 1948, living the rest of his life there except for three years in Barbados, and a shorter period in Canada. Between 1951 and 1965, he published twenty-one novels, and two works of non-fiction, including his autobiographical, A Swarthy Boy.
"Mittelholzer's novels include characters and situations from a variety of places within the Caribbean. They range in time from the earliest period of European settlement to the present day and deal with a cross section of ethnic groups and social classes, not to mention subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest. In addition, eight of Mittelholzer's novels are non-Caribbean in subject and setting. For all these reasons he deserves the title of "father" of the novel in the English-speaking Caribbean" - Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Among Edgar Mittelholzer's many honours was to have been the first West Indian to be awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing (1952). He died by his own hand in 1965, a suicide by fire predicted in several of his novels.
He published The Mad MacMullochs, written in 1953 and first published in 1959, under the pseudonym H. Austin Woodsley.
Excerpts from:
Peepal Tree Press
http://www.peepaltreepress.com/
Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook by Daryl Cumber Dance.
Mittelholzer left Guyana for Trinidad in 1941, eventually migrating to England in 1948, living the rest of his life there except for three years in Barbados, and a shorter period in Canada. Between 1951 and 1965, he published twenty-one novels, and two works of non-fiction, including his autobiographical, A Swarthy Boy.
"Mittelholzer's novels include characters and situations from a variety of places within the Caribbean. They range in time from the earliest period of European settlement to the present day and deal with a cross section of ethnic groups and social classes, not to mention subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest. In addition, eight of Mittelholzer's novels are non-Caribbean in subject and setting. For all these reasons he deserves the title of "father" of the novel in the English-speaking Caribbean" - Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Among Edgar Mittelholzer's many honours was to have been the first West Indian to be awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing (1952). He died by his own hand in 1965, a suicide by fire predicted in several of his novels.
He published The Mad MacMullochs, written in 1953 and first published in 1959, under the pseudonym H. Austin Woodsley.
Excerpts from:
Peepal Tree Press
http://www.peepaltreepress.com/
Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook by Daryl Cumber Dance.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 1, 2016
What is it about Edgar Mittelholzer's books that I find spellbinding? I cannot really tell. Perhaps, it is his depiction of a world long gone; a world that only exists in the memory of our forebears and in books like this autobiography.
I am not a fan of reading non fiction books for entertainment, but what drove me to make the exception with this one? The fact that it was written by Edgar Mittelholzer himself. "A Swarthy Boy" is not only a book about his experiences as a boy; it is also a book about "A Childhood in British Guiana", which is another one of the reasons why I was looking forward to reading this book. I have always been interested in life in the Guianas - whether British, Dutch or French - and this was a satisfactory read in that regard. In this book, we read about hobbies, food, religion, music, literature, education and occupations in this colony back at the beginning of the 20th century, but in a lighthearted way.
Considering the author's dilemmas and dichotomies dealt with in his novels, you would think that he had a troubled childhood (at least I thought so) but he did not. He grew up in a land where the color of your skin and the texture of your hair was important to know where you stood in society and about your expectations in life. However, despite what being swarthy represented at the time, Edgar Mittelholzer had a happy childhood - he himself stated it - and this is what I find refreshing and charming about this book. Edgar Mittelholzer also grew up in a world where discipline and overprotection were the pillars of his upbringing, but this was not a cause for unhappiness either. He did not like the overprotection provided by "the authorities", which is what he called his mother and aunts, but he did like the discipline, for it was in accordance with his Germanic heritage.
What is it about his books that I find so spellbinding? Like I said before, Edgar Mittelholzer was a man of dichotomies; dichotomies that I myself have had throughout my life. This is one of my favorite passages:
"Processions and parties have never appealed to me. I was born with an unsociable streak. I have always liked quiet places, company but not in excess, and the minimum of gaiety. Yet, being left out of these functions gave me a vague sense of inadequacy. No boys likes to be made to feel that he cannot participate in what other boys are participating. In fact, there was a kind of see-saw uncertainty in me. Like my father, I was extremely shy, despite my clowning before my school-mates, and this shyness made me want to be alone. Yet I felt I ought to be allowed to dare the dangers of crowds and the rain and sun from which I was so assiduously protected."
Why did it I give it four instead of five stars, then? Well, while you can see why Edgar Mittelholzer had a liking for writing, the last chapter seems a little rushed when dealing with his decision to become a writer. The only novel about which he offers a little insight and background is “Corentyne Thunder”, although I also would have liked to read more about it since it was his debut novel.
Unfortunately, this is an out of print and rather expensive title. The Peepal Tree Press has claimed that it is planning to reissue it as part of its Caribbean Modern Classics collection, but there is no news about an estimated date yet.
I am not a fan of reading non fiction books for entertainment, but what drove me to make the exception with this one? The fact that it was written by Edgar Mittelholzer himself. "A Swarthy Boy" is not only a book about his experiences as a boy; it is also a book about "A Childhood in British Guiana", which is another one of the reasons why I was looking forward to reading this book. I have always been interested in life in the Guianas - whether British, Dutch or French - and this was a satisfactory read in that regard. In this book, we read about hobbies, food, religion, music, literature, education and occupations in this colony back at the beginning of the 20th century, but in a lighthearted way.
Considering the author's dilemmas and dichotomies dealt with in his novels, you would think that he had a troubled childhood (at least I thought so) but he did not. He grew up in a land where the color of your skin and the texture of your hair was important to know where you stood in society and about your expectations in life. However, despite what being swarthy represented at the time, Edgar Mittelholzer had a happy childhood - he himself stated it - and this is what I find refreshing and charming about this book. Edgar Mittelholzer also grew up in a world where discipline and overprotection were the pillars of his upbringing, but this was not a cause for unhappiness either. He did not like the overprotection provided by "the authorities", which is what he called his mother and aunts, but he did like the discipline, for it was in accordance with his Germanic heritage.
What is it about his books that I find so spellbinding? Like I said before, Edgar Mittelholzer was a man of dichotomies; dichotomies that I myself have had throughout my life. This is one of my favorite passages:
"Processions and parties have never appealed to me. I was born with an unsociable streak. I have always liked quiet places, company but not in excess, and the minimum of gaiety. Yet, being left out of these functions gave me a vague sense of inadequacy. No boys likes to be made to feel that he cannot participate in what other boys are participating. In fact, there was a kind of see-saw uncertainty in me. Like my father, I was extremely shy, despite my clowning before my school-mates, and this shyness made me want to be alone. Yet I felt I ought to be allowed to dare the dangers of crowds and the rain and sun from which I was so assiduously protected."
Why did it I give it four instead of five stars, then? Well, while you can see why Edgar Mittelholzer had a liking for writing, the last chapter seems a little rushed when dealing with his decision to become a writer. The only novel about which he offers a little insight and background is “Corentyne Thunder”, although I also would have liked to read more about it since it was his debut novel.
Unfortunately, this is an out of print and rather expensive title. The Peepal Tree Press has claimed that it is planning to reissue it as part of its Caribbean Modern Classics collection, but there is no news about an estimated date yet.
Displaying 1 of 1 review