Edgar Mittelholzer

Edgar Austin Mittelholzer (16 December 1909 – 6 May 1965) was a Guyanese novelist, the earliest novelist from the West Indian region to establish himself in Europe and gain a significant European readership.

Mittelholzer, who earned his living almost exclusively by writing fiction, is considered the first professional novelist to come out of the English-speaking Caribbean.

His novels include characters and situations from a variety of places within the Caribbean, and range in time from the early period of European settlement to the 20th century.

They feature a cross-section of ethnic groups and social classes, dealing with subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest.

Mittelholzer is "certainly the most prolific novelist to be produced by the Caribbean".

He worked at various menial jobs while beginning to write and publish his work locally, his first publication being Creole Chips (1937).

The publication of his book Corentyne Thunder signalled the birth of the novel in Guyana.

It was written in 1938 when Mittelholzer was aged 29, living and working at odd jobs in New Amsterdam.

The manuscript was sent to England and had a perilous existence until finally it found a publisher, Eyre & Spottiswoode, in 1941.

In December 1941, Mittelholzer left Guyana for Trinidad as a recruit in the Trinidad Royal Volunteer Naval Reserve (TRVNR) during the Second World War.

He recalled his service in the TRVNR as "one of the blackest and most unpleasant interludes" in his life.

Discharged on medical grounds in August 1942, he decided to make Trinidad his home, having married a Trinidadian, Roma Halfhide, in March 1942.

In his last, posthumous novel, the main character escapes his insanity by setting fire to himself.

Mittelholzer committed suicide in England in 1965.

Born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana (later Guyana), the country's second largest town, Edgar Mittelholzer was the second son of William Austin Mittelholzer, a commercial clerk, and his wife Rosamond Mabel, née Leblanc.

Of mixed descent, he had forebears from Switzerland, France, Great Britain and Africa.

He was educated at Berbice High School, and at an early age seems to have reacted against his middle-class colonial environment.

This was to be Mittelholzer’s preferred end: on 5 May 1965, aged 55, the author doused himself with petrol in a field near Farnham, Surrey, and lit a match.

He died the next day at Farnham Hospital.

The Edgar Mittelholzer Lecture Series was started by A. J. Seymour two years after Mittelholzer's death and then took place sporadically.

It is currently delivered annually under the auspices of the Department of Culture.

In the words of the Guyana Chronicle: "This memorial lecture series, like the Guyana Prize for Literature, is unique throughout the Caribbean where it is seen as a welcome acknowledgement of the arts, the artist and artistic achievement. Whenever possible, therefore, a distinguished Guyanese is identified and asked to deliver the Mittelholzer Memorial Lecture, which is viewed with distinction and the entire literary community, including scholars and academics, consider it a command appearance."