Michael Anthony (Author)

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Michael Anthony (2020)

Michael Anthony (born February 10, 1930 in Mayaro ) is a Trinidadian writer and historian.

Life

Anthony's parents were Nathaniel Anthony and Eva Jones Lazarus. As a child, he attended Mayaro Roman Catholic School. His father died when Anthony was ten years old. As a result, he grew up with relatives in San Fernando and went to school there. From 1944 he attended the Junior Technical College in San Fernando with the help of a scholarship. He then began training as a casting moulder and worked for five years in a laundry in Pointe-à-Pierre, but at the end of 1954 he emigrated to Great Britain for economic reasons, which was then still a colonial power of Trinidad. There he took on various positions over the years. In 1958 he married the writer Yvette Phillips in London, with whom he initially had three children. From 1964 to 1968 he worked as a proofreader for Reuters . Since he could no longer stand the climate in Great Britain, he moved with his family to Brazil for two years in 1968, inspired by Brazilian friends in London, where he worked for the diplomatic corps of Trinidad. His fourth child was born in Brazil. In 1970 he returned to Trinidad and worked for the following years as an editor and radio host as well as for the Trinidadian Ministry of Education. In 1992 he accepted a creative writing teaching position from the University of Richmond . In 2015 his wife died, with whom he had four children. Anthony lives in Maraval and New York .

Act as a writer

Anthony's first publications were poems that were published in the Trinidad Guardian in 1954, the year he emigrated. Before emigrating, he also wrote short stories for the Barbadian literary magazine BIM . During his time in London, he wrote short stories which were featured on the BBC program Caribbean Voices . VS Naipaul , who viewed Anthony's submissions as a producer for the BBC and recommended him to André Deutsch , also belonged to the Caribbean community in London at the time . From 1963 on, Anthony published novels and short stories, initially in Deutsch, that deal with everyday or historical life in his homeland as well as his own childhood and youth memories. The novel Streets of Conflict stands out from his work insofar as it is set in Brazil during his stay there. Since 1974 Anthony has also published non-fiction books on the history of his homeland.

Anthony sees himself as a "storyteller" with no deeper message.

“I see myself principally as a storyteller. In other words, I am not aware that I have any message. I think both the past life and the fascination of landscape play a most important part in my work. "

- Michael Anthony

reception

Peepal Tree Press founder Jeremy Poynting sees Anthony's early work as "inconspicuous but flawless art" that hides major issues behind seemingly simple stories. His first novel is full of subtle political undertones about the colonial system that has just been overcome in Trinidad, and his second novel juxtaposes blossoming and wilting life and shows what it is that essentially defines being human. Poynting evaluates that the other novels of Anthony no longer reached this level.

The Writers Union of Trinidad and Tobago has organized the Michael Anthony Mayaro Book Festival every two years in Mayaro since 2014 and awards the Michael Anthony Award, endowed with TT $ 20,000. Anthony's novel Green Days by the River , published in 1967, was filmed in 2017 by the Trinidadian director Michael Mooleedhar .

Works

Novels

  • The Games Were Coming (German, London 1963)
  • The Year in San Fernando (German, London 1965)
  • Green Days by the River (German, London 1967)
  • Streets of Conflict (German, London 1976)
  • All That Glitters (German, London 1981)
  • Bright Road to El Dorado (Nelson, Walton-on-Thames 1982)
  • The Becket Factor (Collins, London 1990)
  • In the Heat of the Day (Heinemann, Portsmouth 1996)
  • High Tide of Intrigue (Heinemann, 2001)
  • Butler - Till the Final Bell (Macmillan, London 2004)
  • The Briefcase (Circle Press, Port of Spain 2013)
  • The Lamp Lighter (Circle Press, Port of Spain 2013)
  • The Sound of Marching Feet (2020)

Short story collections

  • Tales for Young and Old (Stockwell, London 1967)
  • Sandra Street (Heinemann, London 1973)
  • Cricket in the Road (German, London 1973)
  • Folk Tales and Fantasies (Columbus, Port of Spain 1976)
  • The Chieftain's Carnival (Longman, London 1993)

Non-fiction

  • Glimpses of Trinidad & Tobago: With a glance at the West Indies (Columbus, Port of Spain 1974)
  • Profile Trinidad: A historical survey from the discovery to 1900 (Macmillan, London 1975)
  • The Making of Port-of-Spain, Vol. 1: 1757-1939 (Key Caribbean, Port of Spain 1978)
  • Port of Spain in a World at War (National Cultural Council, Port of Spain 1984)
  • First in Trinidad (Circle Press, Port of Spain 1985)
  • Heroes of the People of Trinidad and Tobago (Circle Press, Port of Spain 1986)
  • The History of Aviation in Trinidad and Tobago 1913-1962 (Paria, Port of Spain 1987)
  • A Better and Brighter Day (Circle Press, Port of Spain 1987)
  • Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago (Circle Press, Port of Spain 1988)
  • Parade of the Carnivals of Trinidad 1839-1989 (Circle Press, Port of Spain 1989)
  • The Golden Quest: The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Macmillan, London 1992)
  • Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago (Scarecrow, Lanham 1997)
  • Anaparima (City Council of San Fernando, San Fernando 2001)
  • A History of Trinidad and Tobago in the 20th Century, Vol. 1: 1901-1925 (Circle Press, Port of Spain 2010)
  • The Carnivals of Trinidad and Tobago from Inception to Year 2000 (Circle Press, Port of Spain 2011)
  • Christopher Columbus: The Man and His Voyages (Circle Press, Port of Spain 2012)
  • Builders of the Nation of Trinidad and Tobago (Circle Press, Port of Spain 2012)

Awards

  • 1979: Hummingbird Medal in gold
  • 2003: Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies
  • 2012: NALIS Lifetime Literary Awards
  • 2014: Father of the Nation Medal of Honor in Gold

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Retrospective on TriniView.com. Retrieved March 19, 2015 .
  2. ↑ NALIS.gov.tt: One Book One Community. Retrieved May 19, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Anthonys wife dies . In: Trinidad Express . November 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ SFLCN-com: Trinidadian Author, Dr. Michael Anthony to host panel at Miami Book Fair. Retrieved May 18, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Donstan Bonn: Anthony's good advice from Naipaul . In: Trinidad Express . 2nd February 2014.
  6. ↑ JRank.org: Michael Anthony Biography. Retrieved May 18, 2018 .
  7. ^ Encyclopedia.com: Anthony, Michael. Retrieved May 19, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Anthony, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Trinidadian writer and historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Mayaro , Trinidad and Tobago