Victor Stafford Reid

The Honourable
Victor Stafford Reid
OJ
Born(1913-05-01)1 May 1913
Died25 August 1987(1987-08-25) (aged 74)
NationalityJamaican
EducationKingston Technical High School
Known forNovelist
AwardsGold Musgrave Medal (1976),
Order of Jamaica (1980)

Victor Stafford Reid, OJ, (1 May 1913 – 25 August 1987) was a Jamaican writer born in Kingston, Jamaica, who wrote to influence younger generations to embrace local history. He was awarded the silver (1950) and gold (1976) Musgrave Medals, the Order of Jamaica (1980) and the Norman Manley Award for Excellence in Literature in 1981.[1] He was the author of several novels, three of which were aimed towards children; one play production; and several short stories. Two of his most notable works are New Day, "the first West Indian novel to be written throughout in a dialect form"[2], and The Leopard.

As a writer, Reid aimed to instill an awareness of legacy and tradition among the Jamaican people. His writings reflected many of the social and cultural hardships that pervade the time periods illustrated in his literary works. As literary critic Edward Baugh stated, "[Reid’s] writing shows a fondness for the rebel with a cause… he wanted people to learn about their heritage through his writing."[1]

Reid was one of a handful of writers to emerge from the new literary and nationalist movement that seized Jamaican sentiment in the period of the late 1930s. From this "new art" surfaced many of Reid's literary contemporaries, including Roger Mais, George Campbell, M. G. Smith, and H. D. Carberry. A common objective among this new generation of writers was an inclination to "break away from Victorianism and to associate with the Jamaican independence movement."[3]

Reid's emphasis on resistance and struggle is reaffirmed in a 1978 lecture he delivered at the Institute of Jamaica on the topic of cultural revolution in Jamaica post-1938. In the address, Reid contended that the collective discontent of the working class majority was the public assertion of a "new brand of loyalty" that situated itself not only beyond, but more importantly, in direct resistance to imperial rule.[4]

  1. ^ a b Journal of West Indian Literature, vol. 2, no. 1, December 1987.
  2. ^ Michael Hughes, "Reid, Victor Stafford", A Companion to West Indian Literature, Collins, 1979, p. 103.
  3. ^ Oakley, Leo. "Ideas of Patriotism and National Dignity in Some Jamaican Writings", Jamaica Journal 4: 16–21, 1970.
  4. ^ Reid, Victor Stafford. "The Cultural Revolution in Jamaica after 1938," address delivered at the Institute of Jamaica established in 1978.