Edgar Mittelholzer
Encyclopedia
Edgar Mittelholzer was a Guyanese
novelist. Born in New Amsterdam
, the country's second largest town, he was the son of William Austin Mittelholzer and his wife Rosamond Mabel, née Leblanc. Of mixed descent, he had forebears from Switzerland, France, Great Britain and Africa.
Mittelholzer, who earned his living by writing fiction almost exclusively, 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 earliest period of European settlement to the twentieth century. They feature a cross-section of ethnic groups and social classes, dealing with subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest.
Corentyne Thunder signalled the birth of the novel in Guyana. It was written in 1938 when Mittelholzer was aged twenty-nine, living and working 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. 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 1947 Mittelholzer decided to go to England, convinced that only by so doing would he stand a chance of succeeding as a writer. He had been maintaining himself and his family with a variety of odd jobs, such as receptionist at the Queen's Park Hotel and clerk at the Planning and Housing Board. He sailed for England with his wife and daughter in 1948, taking the manuscript of A Morning at the Office with him.
In London, Mittelholzer went to work in the Books Department of the British Council
as a copy-typist. Through a fellow worker, he met Leonard Woolf
in June 1949, and the result was the publication in 1950 by the Hogarth Press
of A Morning at the Office. Peter Nevill published his third novel, Shadows Move Among Them, in April 1951, and in 1952 brought out the first volume of Mittelholzer's monumental historical epic, Children of Kaywana. After its appearance, and despite hostile reviews, Mittelholzer took the crucial decision to give up his job at the British Council and live entirely by his writing.
In May 1952, he was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship
for Creative Writing. He decided to spend the year in Montreal
and to use his time there finishing the second volume of the Kaywana trilogy. The long Canadian winter of 1952-3 made him decide to move to Barbados
with his wife and four children, and he spent the next three years in the West Indies. During that time he completed The Life and Death of Sylvia (1953), the second volume of the trilogy, Hubertus (1954), and his terrifying ghost story, My Bones and My Flute (1955). He was also to use this Barbadian setting for four other novels.
In May 1956, Mittelholzer returned to England. His marriage was deteriorating steadily, and he was granted a divorce in May 1959, with his wife receiving custody of their two sons and two daughters. In August 1959, at a writers' workshop he met Jacqueline Pointer and they married in April 1960.
Mittelholzer published at least one novel a year between 1950 and 1965 (with the exception of 1964). He had stopped using an agent in preference to handling all his books himself. At first this seemed a wise move, and in 1952 he began an association with Secker & Warburg that was to last over nine years and thirteen books; however, in 1961 there was a falling-out over The Piling of the Clouds, which they refused to take on since they deemed it "pornographic". The novel was rejected by five publishing houses before G. P. Putnam's Sons
published it in 1961, followed by The Wounded and the Worried (1962), and in 1963 Mittelholzer's autobiography, A Swarthy Boy. A promised second volume never materialized after he broke with Putnam's as well.
Mittelholzer's problems were steadily growing, and critical reception of his work was increasingly hostile. He had acquired the reputation of being "a problem author" and after 1961, he tells us, he lived "under an ever-darkening cloud-pall of opprobrium" (Jacqueline Mittelholzer, "The Idyll and the Warrior," p. 86). He felt persecuted, convinced that the poor reviews of his books were damaging his literary reputation and interfering with the publication of his work. The Aloneness of Mrs Chatham (1965), for example, was refused by fourteen publishers.
The difficulties he encountered in being published toward the end of his life affected Mittelholzer seriously. He was badly in need of money to support his first wife and children, as well as his second wife and son.
Mittelholzer took his own life near Farnham, Surrey, England, on 5 May 1965.
His works include:
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
novelist. Born in New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam, Guyana
New Amsterdam , located in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region, 62 miles from the capital, Georgetown, is one of the largest towns in Guyana. It is located four miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean mouth of the Berbice River, on its eastern bank, immediately south of the Canje River...
, the country's second largest town, he was the son of William Austin Mittelholzer and his wife Rosamond Mabel, née Leblanc. Of mixed descent, he had forebears from Switzerland, France, Great Britain and Africa.
Mittelholzer, who earned his living by writing fiction almost exclusively, 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 earliest period of European settlement to the twentieth century. They feature a cross-section of ethnic groups and social classes, dealing with subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest.
Corentyne Thunder signalled the birth of the novel in Guyana. It was written in 1938 when Mittelholzer was aged twenty-nine, living and working odd jobs in New Amsterdam. The manuscript was sent to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and had a perilous existence until finally it found a publisher, Eyre & Spottiswoode
Eyre & Spottiswoode
Eyre & Spottiswoode, Ltd. was the London based printing firm that was the King's Printer, and subsequently, after April 1929, a publisher of the same name...
, in 1941.
In December 1941, Mittelholzer left Guyana for Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
as a recruit in the Trinidad Royal Volunteer Naval Reserve. 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 1947 Mittelholzer decided to go to England, convinced that only by so doing would he stand a chance of succeeding as a writer. He had been maintaining himself and his family with a variety of odd jobs, such as receptionist at the Queen's Park Hotel and clerk at the Planning and Housing Board. He sailed for England with his wife and daughter in 1948, taking the manuscript of A Morning at the Office with him.
In London, Mittelholzer went to work in the Books Department of the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
as a copy-typist. Through a fellow worker, he met Leonard Woolf
Leonard Woolf
Leonard Sidney Woolf was an English political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant, and husband of author Virginia Woolf.-Early life:...
in June 1949, and the result was the publication in 1950 by the Hogarth Press
Hogarth Press
The Hogarth Press was founded in 1917 by Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond, in which they began hand-printing books....
of A Morning at the Office. Peter Nevill published his third novel, Shadows Move Among Them, in April 1951, and in 1952 brought out the first volume of Mittelholzer's monumental historical epic, Children of Kaywana. After its appearance, and despite hostile reviews, Mittelholzer took the crucial decision to give up his job at the British Council and live entirely by his writing.
In May 1952, he was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
for Creative Writing. He decided to spend the year in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and to use his time there finishing the second volume of the Kaywana trilogy. The long Canadian winter of 1952-3 made him decide to move to Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
with his wife and four children, and he spent the next three years in the West Indies. During that time he completed The Life and Death of Sylvia (1953), the second volume of the trilogy, Hubertus (1954), and his terrifying ghost story, My Bones and My Flute (1955). He was also to use this Barbadian setting for four other novels.
In May 1956, Mittelholzer returned to England. His marriage was deteriorating steadily, and he was granted a divorce in May 1959, with his wife receiving custody of their two sons and two daughters. In August 1959, at a writers' workshop he met Jacqueline Pointer and they married in April 1960.
Mittelholzer published at least one novel a year between 1950 and 1965 (with the exception of 1964). He had stopped using an agent in preference to handling all his books himself. At first this seemed a wise move, and in 1952 he began an association with Secker & Warburg that was to last over nine years and thirteen books; however, in 1961 there was a falling-out over The Piling of the Clouds, which they refused to take on since they deemed it "pornographic". The novel was rejected by five publishing houses before G. P. Putnam's Sons
G. P. Putnam's Sons
G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
published it in 1961, followed by The Wounded and the Worried (1962), and in 1963 Mittelholzer's autobiography, A Swarthy Boy. A promised second volume never materialized after he broke with Putnam's as well.
Mittelholzer's problems were steadily growing, and critical reception of his work was increasingly hostile. He had acquired the reputation of being "a problem author" and after 1961, he tells us, he lived "under an ever-darkening cloud-pall of opprobrium" (Jacqueline Mittelholzer, "The Idyll and the Warrior," p. 86). He felt persecuted, convinced that the poor reviews of his books were damaging his literary reputation and interfering with the publication of his work. The Aloneness of Mrs Chatham (1965), for example, was refused by fourteen publishers.
The difficulties he encountered in being published toward the end of his life affected Mittelholzer seriously. He was badly in need of money to support his first wife and children, as well as his second wife and son.
Mittelholzer took his own life near Farnham, Surrey, England, on 5 May 1965.
His works include:
- Creole Chips (1937)
- Corentyne Thunder (1941) ISBN 9781845231118
- A Morning at the Office (1950) ISBN 9781845230661
- Shadows Move Among Them (1951) ISBN 9781845230913
- Children of Kaywana (1952) ISBN 9780586064917
- The Weather in Middenshot (1952)
- The Life and Death of Sylvia (1953)
- Kaywana Stock: The Harrowing of Hubertus (1954) ISBN 9780450000799
- The Adding Machine (a short fable) (1954)
- My Bones and My Flute (1955) ISBN 9780582785526
- Of Trees and the Sea (1956)
- A Tale of Three Places (1957)
- Kaywana Blood (1958) ISBN 9780553123760
- The Weather Family (1958)
- A Tinkling in the Twilight (1959)
- Latticed Echoes (1960)
- Eltonsbrody (1960)
- The Mad MacMullochs (1961)
- Thunder Returning (1961)
- The Piling of Clouds (1961)
- The Wounded and the Worried (1962)
- Uncle Paul (1963)
- A Swarthy Boy: A Childhood in British Guiana (autobiography) (1963)
- The Aloneness of Mrs Chatham (1965)
- The Jilkington Drama (1965)
- With a Carib Eye (travel) (1965)
External links
- Encyclopedia of World Biography on Edgar Mittelholzerhttp://www.bookrags.com/biography/edgar-mittelholzer/
- Newsday, 11 May 2008, "The Ghost of Edgar Mittelholzer" by Andre Bagoohttp://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,78719.html
- "Edgar Mittelholzer - GCA Symposium to Celebrate the Man and His Works", 12 December 2009http://www.guyfolkfest.org/2009EdgarMittelholzer.html
- Stabroek News, 15 November 2010, "Remembering Edgar Mittelholzer: Part 1" by Colin Rickardshttp://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/11/15/remembering-edgar-mittelholzer-part-1/
- Stabroek News, 29 November 2010, "Remembering Edgar Mittelholzer: Part II" by Colin Rickardshttp://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/in-the-diaspora/11/29/remembering-edgar-mittelholzer-part-ii/