Sam Selvon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Samuel Selvon
Samuel Selvon, 1952
Born	(1923-05-20)20 May 1923 San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
Died	16 April 1994(1994-04-16) (aged 70) Piarco International Airport, Piarco, Tunapuna–Piarco, Trinidad and Tobago
Notable works	The Lonely Londoners (1956)
Spouses	Draupadi Persaud Althea Daroux
Children	Two daughters and two sons

Samuel Selvon (May 20, 1923 – April 16, 1994) was a famous writer. He was born in Trinidad. Later, he moved to London, England, in the 1950s. His 1956 novel, The Lonely Londoners, was very important. It was one of the first books to use a special kind of English. This was the everyday language spoken by people from the Caribbean. He used it for both the story and the characters' talks.

Samuel Selvon: A Life in Words

Early Life and Beginnings

Samuel Dickson Selvon was born in San Fernando, Trinidad. He was the sixth of seven children in his family. His parents were of Indian background. His father was a Christian Tamil from Madras (now Chennai). His mother was a Christian Anglo-Indian. His grandfather on his mother's side was Scottish. His grandmother was Indian.

Selvon went to Naparima College in San Fernando. He left school at age 15 to start working. During World War II, from 1940 to 1945, he worked. He was a wireless operator for the local Royal Naval Reserve. After the war, he moved to Port of Spain. From 1945 to 1950, he worked as a reporter. He wrote for the Trinidad Guardian newspaper. He also worked on its literature page for a while. During this time, he began writing his own stories and descriptive pieces. He often used different pen names.

Moving to London

In 1950, Selvon moved to London, England. He took on various simple jobs there. For some time, he worked as a clerk for the Indian Embassy. He spent his free time writing. His short stories and poems were printed in different magazines. These included the London Magazine and New Statesman. In London, he also worked with the BBC. He wrote two television shows for them. These were Anansi the Spiderman and Home Sweet India.

From 1975 to 1977, Selvon was a creative writing fellow. This was at the University of Dundee. In the late 1970s, Selvon moved to Alberta, Canada. He found a job teaching creative writing. He was a visiting professor at the University of Victoria. When that job ended, he worked as a janitor. This was at the University of Calgary for a few months. Then he became a writer-in-residence there.

His Unique Writing Style

Selvon is most famous for his novels. These include The Lonely Londoners (1956) and Moses Ascending (1975). His novel A Brighter Sun (1952) was also very popular. It tells the story of a young Indian worker named Tiger. He sees the building of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway in Trinidad. This book was often studied in CXC English literature classes.

Other important books include Ways of Sunlight (1957). This is a collection of stories. He also wrote Turn Again Tiger (1958) and Those Who Eat the Cascadura (1972). In the 1960s and 1970s, Selvon turned many of his novels and stories into radio plays. The BBC broadcast these plays. They were later collected in books. These books are Eldorado West One (1988) and Highway in the Sun (1991).

The Lonely Londoners and most of Selvon's later work focus on a big event. This was when many people from the West Indies moved to Britain. This happened in the 1950s and 1960s. The book shares the daily experiences of these new settlers. They came from Africa and the Caribbean. Selvon also shows the many different groups of people in London. These groups exist because of class and race. His books helped pave the way for later works. Examples include White Teeth (2000) by Zadie Smith. Another is The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) by Hanif Kureishi.

Selvon explained how he wrote The Lonely Londoners. He said he wanted to capture the feeling of everyday life in the West Indies. He had many great stories to tell. But he found it hard to start the novel in standard English. The people he wanted to write about were very interesting. He felt stuck when trying to write about them. At first, he wrote the story in standard English. Most of the conversations were in dialect. Then he tried writing both the story and the conversations in dialect. After that, the novel flowed easily.

Selvon's original writings are kept at the Harry Ransom Center. This is at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. They include his handwritten notes and typed copies. There are also book proofs, notebooks, and letters. Drafts for six of his 11 novels are there. There are also letters and items about his career.

Awards and Recognition

Selvon received several important awards. He was given two Guggenheim Fellowships. These were in 1955 and 1968. In 1989, he received an honorary doctorate. This was from Warwick University. In 1985, the University of the West Indies gave him an honorary degree.

In 1969, he won the Hummingbird Medal Gold for Literature. This is a top award in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1994, after he passed away, he received another national award. This was the Chaconia Medal Gold for Literature. In 2012, he was honored with a NALIS Lifetime Achievement Literary Award. This was for his great contributions to Trinidad and Tobago's literature.

On May 20, 2018, Selvon was honored with a Google Doodle. This was on what would have been his 95th birthday.

Filmography

Selvon also worked on films. He co-wrote the film Pressure (1976). He worked on this with Horace Ové.

Samuel Selvon passed away on April 16, 1994. He was on a return trip to Trinidad. He died at Piarco International Airport. His ashes were later buried at the University of the West Indies cemetery. This is in St Augustine, Trinidad.

Selvon was married twice. In 1947, he married Draupadi Persaud. They had one daughter. In 1963, he married Althea Daroux. They had two sons and a daughter.