Charles Robert Saunders (July 12, 1946May 2020) was an African-American author and journalist, a pioneer of the "sword and soul" literary genre with his Imaro novels.
[Tattrie, Jon.]
The extraordinary inner world of Charles R. Saunders, father of Black 'sword and soul'
" on ''CBC News'', posted September 16, 2020; accessed September 21, 2020. During his long career, he wrote novels, non-fiction,
screenplays
A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a ''teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writ ...
and
radio plays
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
.
Life and work
Charles Robert Saunders was born on July 3, 1946, in
Elizabeth, Pennsylvania
Elizabeth is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, on the east bank of the Monongahela River, where Pennsylvania Route 51 crosses, upstream (south) of Pittsburgh and close to the county line. The population was 1,398 at th ...
, a small town outside
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
.
[Saunders, Charles R. "Autobiography" Saunders' official website](_blank)
accessed June 27, 2011. He later lived in
Norristown before going to
Lincoln University,
from which he graduated in 1968 with a degree in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
.
Drafted to
fight in Vietnam in 1969,
he instead moved to Canada, living in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
and
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...
before a sojourn in
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
of fourteen
or fifteen years.
In 1985 he moved to
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
,
where he lived for the remainder of his life.
Nova Scotia's black community is largely descended from African Americans who went over to the British side during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
and the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
; they were given freedom and land in Nova Scotia after those wars ended, and created communities such as
Africville
Africville was a small community of predominantly African Nova Scotians located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It developed on the southern shore of Bedford Basin and existed from the early 1800s to the 1960s. From 1970 to the present, a pro ...
.
Saunders worked as a civil servant and teacher until 1989, when he began a career in journalism.
Poet
George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke (born February 12, 1960) is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate in 2016-2017. Clarke's work addresse ...
, who had written a column on Black issues for the ''
Halifax Daily News
''The Daily News'' was a tabloid newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that was published from 1974 until ceasing operations in February 2008.
History
''The Daily News'' owed its existence to David Bentley, who, along with his wife Diana and Patr ...
'' before moving to Ontario, recommended him to editor Doug MacKay, who after meeting Saunders took a chance and hired him.
Saunders worked the night shift as a
copy editor
Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (" copy") to improve quality and readability, as well as ensuring that a text is free of errors in grammar, style, and accuracy. ''The Ch ...
as well as writing his own weekly column on African-Nova Scotian life,
for which he wrote his thoughts out in