Ralph de Boissière

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Ralph Anthony Charles de Boissière (16 October 1907—16 February 2008) was an Australian-based social realist novelist who emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in 1948.

Ralph de Boissière was born in Port of Spain, son of Armand de Boissiere, a solicitor, and Maude Harper an Englishwoman who died three weeks later.[1] He attended Queen's Royal College and during this time discovered the Russian authors, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gorky, Chekhov, Pushkin and Gogol, who were to remain a lasting influence:

“ They wrote of a vast country in which the weight of tsarism was destroying millions. ...crying out against an entire system in which the guilt of the rulers was being ignored while millions were dying from neglect. ... The writers of that time are still my favourites...A hundred and fifty years later the crimes against mankind have multiplied and are choking us all. But not many today write with that call to humankind, that call which, though muffled by the censor, could still boom out its message. ”

Initially he wished to become a concert pianist but on leaving school took a job as a salesman which enlightened him to the living and working of ordinary Trinidadians.[2] He then became involved in left-wing and trade union politics and also wrote for Trinidad's first literary magazine, The Beacon which he helped establish and where he met among others the writer C. L. R. James.[1][3] In 1935 he married Ivy Alcantara (died 1984) and they had two daughters.[1] But in 1947, having lost his job and unable to find another one because of his political activities, he and his family left the country, first for Chicago and then finally Melbourne, Australia. He found work in Australia as salesman, factory-hand and then a clerical job from which he retired in 1980.[2]

In Australia he joined the Communist Party and had his first novel, Crown Jewel published in 1952 by the leftist Australasian Book Society. Like all his work this depicts the struggles of the working class with realistic sympathy, culminating with a portrayal of a 1937 strike in Trinidad brutally put down by police shooting. Since then he has written four more novels and been translated into Polish, German, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech and Chinese.[1] His work has been described by one critic as, “combin[ing] social realism and political commitment with a concern for the culture of the feeling within the individual in a way that is unique not only among West Indian writers but among writers with a social conscience anywhere in the world”.

In 2007, his centenary year, Ralph de Boissière married his longtime companion, Dr Annie Greet, his fourth novel, Call of the Rainbow was published in Melbourne, and in November, he received an honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. His autobiography, Life on the Edge is due for publication in Trinidad late in 2008. He died in Melbourne on 16 February 2008.[4]

[edit] Novels

  • Crown Jewel. (Australasian Book Society, 1952; Allison and Busby, 1981)
  • Rum and Coca-Cola. (Australasian Book Society, 1956; Allison and Busby, 1984)
  • No Saddles for Kangaroos. (Australasian Book Society, 1964)
  • Call of the Rainbow (L.A. Browne, Melbourne, 2007)
  • Homeless in Paradise.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Milne, Anthony (n. d.). De Boissiere: The Lion in Winter. Gowanus Books. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
  2. ^ a b Flanagan, Martin (2004-05-26). Political author with heart. The Age. Retrieved on 2009-10-07.
  3. ^ Greet, Annie (2007-03-02). Ralph De Boissière (1907-). The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2009-10-07.
  4. ^ R.I.P. Ralph de Boissiere, 6 October, 1907-16 February, 2008. The Caribbean Review of Books (2007-03-02). Retrieved on 2008-04-03.

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME de Boissière, Ralph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ralph Anthony Charles de Boissière
SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian novelist of Trinidadian origin
DATE OF BIRTH 16 October 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Port of Spain, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago
DATE OF DEATH 16 February 2008
PLACE OF DEATH Balwyn North, Victoria, Australia