 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2015) |
Eric D. Walrond | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Eric Derwent Walrond 18 December 1898 Georgetown, British Guiana |
| Died | 8 August 1966 (aged 67) London, United Kingdom |
| Resting place | Abney Park Cemetery, London |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Citizenship | British subject |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Literary movement | Harlem Renaissance |
Eric Derwent Walrond (18 December 1898 – 8 August 1966) was an Afro-Caribbean Harlem Renaissance writer and journalist. Born in Georgetown, British Guiana, the son of a Barbadian mother and a Guyanese father, Walrond was well-travelled, moving early in life to live in Barbados, and then Panama, New York City, and eventually England. He made a lasting contribution to literature, his most famous book being Tropic Death, published in New York City in 1926 when he was 28; it remains in print today as a classic of its era.
In it are collected 10 stories, at least one of which had been previously published in small magazines. He had published other short stories prior to this, as well as a number of essays. The scholar Kenneth Ramchand described Walrond's book as a "blistering" work of the imagination; others described his work as "impressionistic" and "frequently telegraphic", reflecting his use of short sentences. The following extract from his short story "Subjection" illustrates his more lyrical narrative style:
- "A ram-shackle body, dark in the ungentle spots exposing it, jogged, reeled and fell at the tip of a white bludgeon. Forced a dent in the crisp caked earth. An isolated ear lay limp and juicy, like some exhausted leaf or flower, half joined to the tree whence it sprang. Only the sticky milk flooding it was crimson, crimsoning the dust and earth."
Much of the dialogue between Walrond's characters is written in dialect, using the many different tongues loosely centred on the English language to portray the diversity of characters associated with the pan-Caribbean diaspora.