Una Maud Victoria Marson (6 February 1905 – 6 May 1965) was a

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes. She travelled to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1932 and became the first black woman to be employed by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1942, she became producer of the programme ''Calling the West Indies'', turning it into '' Caribbean Voices'', which became an important forum for

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

literary work. Her biographer Delia Jarrett-Macauley described her (in ''The Life of Una Marson, 1905–1965'') as the first "Black British feminist to speak out against racism and sexism in Britain". British civil rights leader

Billy Strachan William Arthur Watkin Strachan (16 April 1921 – 26 April 1998) was a British communist, civil rights activist, and pilot. He is most noted for his achievements as a bomber pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, and f ...

credited Una Marson with educating him on political and racial issues.

Early years, 1905–1932

Una Marson was born on 6 February 1905, at Sharon Mission House, Sharon village, near Santa Cruz, Jamaica, in the parish of St Elizabeth, as the youngest of six children of Baptist parson Solomon Isaac Marson (1858–1916) and his wife Ada Wilhelmina Mullins (1863–1922).DeCaires Narain, Denise
"Marson, Una Maud Victoria"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. She had a middle-class upbringing and was very close to her father, who influenced some of her fatherlike characters in her later works. As a child before going to school, Marson was an avid reader of available literature, which at the time was mostly English classical literature. At the age of 10, Marson was enrolled in Hampton High, a girl's boarding school in Jamaica of which her father was on the board of trustees. However, her father died that year, leaving the family with financial problems, so they moved to

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

. She finished school at Hampton High, but did not go on to a college education. After leaving Hampton, she found work in Kingston as a volunteer social worker and used the secretarial skills, such as stenography, she had learned in school, her first job being with the

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

. In 1926, Marson was appointed assistant editor of the Jamaican political journal ''Jamaica Critic''. Her years there taught her journalism skills as well as influencing her political and social opinions and inspired her to create her own publication; in 1928, she became Jamaica's first female editor, and publisher of her own magazine, ''The Cosmopolitan'', which printed articles on feminist topics, local social issues and workers' rights, and was aimed at a young, middle-class Jamaican audience. Marson's articles encouraged women to join the work force and to become politically active. The magazine also published Jamaican poetry and literature by Marson's fellow members of the Jamaican Poetry League, started by J. E. Clare McFarlane. In 1930, Marson published her first collection of poems, entitled ''Tropic Reveries'', that dealt with love and nature with elements of feminism. It won the

Musgrave Medal The Musgrave Medal is an annual award by the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of achievement in art, science, and literature.Webster, Valerie J. (2000), ''Awards, Honors & Prizes, Volume 2'', Gale Group, , p. 447. Originally conceived in 1889 ...

from the

Institute of Jamaica The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation:'', about a Jamaican girl who moves from the country into the city of Kingston to work as a stenographer and falls in love with her white male boss. The play opened in Jamaica and later London to critical acclaim. In 1932, she decided to go to London to find a broader audience for her work and to experience life outside Jamaica.

London, 1932–1936

When she first arrived in the UK in 1932, Marson found the

colour bar Racial segregation is the separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by people ...

restricted her ability to find work, and she campaigned against it. She stayed in

Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...

, south-east London, at the home of Harold Moody, who the year before had founded civil-rights organisation The League of Coloured Peoples. The League sponsored a production of Marson's play ''At What a Price'' in London in the winter of 1932–33. First staged in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1932, this four-act drama explores the experiences of Ruth Maitland, a young woman who leaves behind her family home in the countryside and moves to Kingston to become a stenographer in the office of a white English businessman named Gerald Fitzroy. He pursues her relentlessly and Ruth becomes pregnant. She returns to the family home, where a long-time admirer proposes marriage. The play explores women's desires – for love and for a career, as well as interracial relations, sexual harassment in the workplace and women's friendship. It opened at the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

Central Club Hall in London on 23 November 1933. It ran for a further four nights in January 1934 at the

Scala Theatre The Scala Theatre was a theatre in Charlotte Street, London, off Tottenham Court Road. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772; the last was demolished in 1969, after a catastrophic fire. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was known as the ...

Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ' ...

and

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tu ...

. Critics noted the diverse origins and accents of the Black cast who played all twenty roles (including the two white roles), which included activists and artists from Bermuda, British Guiana, England, Gold Coast, India, Italy, Jamaica and St. Lucia. From 1932 to 1945, Marson moved back and forth between London and Jamaica. She continued to contribute to politics, but now instead of focusing on writing for magazines, she wrote for newspapers and her own literary works in order to get her political ideas across. In these years, Marson kept writing to advocate feminism, but one of her new emphases was on the race issue in England. The racism and sexism she found in the UK "transformed both her life and her poetry": the voice in her poetry became more focused on the identity of black women in England. In this period, Marson not only continued to write about women's roles in society, but also put into the mix the issues faced by black people who lived in England. In July 1933, she wrote a poem called "Nigger" that was published in the League of Coloured Peoples' journal, '' The Keys'', on which she worked in an editorial capacity and became Editor for in 1935. Outside of her writing at that time, Marson was in the London branch of the

International Alliance of Women The International Alliance of Women (IAW; , AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international organization that campaigned for women's suff ...

, a global feminist organization. By 1935, she was involved with the International Alliance of Women based in

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Jamaica, 1936–1938

Marson returned to Jamaica in 1936, where one of her goals was to promote national literature. One step she took in achieving this goal was to help create the Kingston Readers and Writers Club, as well as the Kingston Drama Club. She also founded the Jamaica Save the Children Fund, an organization that raised funds to give poorer children money for a basic education. In promoting Jamaican literature, Marson published ''Moth and the Star'' in 1937. Many poems in that volume argue that, despite the media's portrayal that black women were less beautiful than white women, they should be confident about their own beauty. This theme is seen in "Cinema Eyes", "Little Brown Girl", "Black is Fancy" and "Kinky Hair Blues"."Una Marson" in

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

, ''

Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora ...

'', London: Cape, 1992, p. 221. Marson herself had been affected by the stereotype of superior white beauty; her biographer tells us that within months of her arrival in Britain she "stopped straightening her hair and went natural". Going along with her feminist principles, Marson worked with

Louise Bennett Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou (7 September 1919 – 26 July 2006), was a Jamaican poet, folklorist, actress, writer, and educator. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois or Creole, Bennett worked to preserve the prac ...

to create another play called ''London Calling'', which was about a woman who moved to London to further her education, but later became homesick and returned to Jamaica. This play shows how the main character is a "strong heroine" for being able to "force herself to return to London" in order to finish her education there. Also in the feminist vein, Marson wrote ''Public Opinion'', contributing to the feminist column. Marson's third play, ''Pocomania'', is about a woman named Stella who is looking for an exciting life. Critics suggest that this play is significant because it demonstrates how an "Afro-religious cult" affects middle-class women. ''Pocomania'' is also one of Marson's most important works because she was able to put the essence of Jamaican culture into it. Critics such as Ivy Baxter said that "''Pocomania'' was a break in tradition because it talked about a cult from the country", and, as such, it represented a turning point in what was acceptable on the stage. In 1937, Marson wrote a poem called "Quashie comes to London", which is the perspective of England in a Caribbean narrative. In Caribbean dialect, ''quashie'' means gullible or unsophisticated. Although initially impressed, Quashie becomes disgusted with England because there is not enough good food there. The poem shows how, although England has good things to offer, it is Jamaican culture that Quashie misses, and therefore Marson implies that England is supposed to be "the temporary venue for entertainment". The poem shows how it was possible for a writer to implement Caribbean dialect in a poem, and it is this usage of local dialect that situates Quashie's perspective of England as a Caribbean perspective.

London, 1938–1945

Marson returned to London in 1938 to continue work on the Jamaican Save the Children project that she started in Jamaica, and also to be on the staff of the ''Jamaican Standard''. In March 1940, Marson published an article entitled "We Want Books – But Do We Encourage Our Writers?" in ''Public Opinion'', a political weekly, in an effort to spur Caribbean nationalism through literature. In 1941, she was hired by the BBC Empire Service to work on the programme ''Calling the West Indies'', in which World War II soldiers would have their messages read on the radio to their families, becoming the producer of the programme by 1942. During the same year, Marson turned the programme into '' Caribbean Voices'', as a forum in which Caribbean literary work was read over the radio. Through this show, Marson met people such as J. E. Clare McFarlane, Vic Reid, Andrew Salkey,

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harl ...

James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ...

Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He played a significant role in the ...

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Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) (commonly known a ...

, Amy Garvey,

Nancy Cunard Nancy Clara Cunard (10 March 1896 – 17 March 1965) was a British writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class, and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the ...

Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (; 5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was an English Feminism, feminist and Socialism, socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise worki ...

Winifred Holtby Winifred Holtby (23 June 1898 – 29 September 1935) was an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel '' South Riding'', which was posthumously published in 1936. Biography Holtby was born to a prosperous farming family in ...

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer. He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967, during which time he lived at Burcot, Oxfordshire, near Abingdon ...

Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet, playwright and producer for the BBC. Known for its exploration of introspection, empiricism, and belonging, his poetic work is now ranked among the twentieth ...

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

Tambimuttu Meary James Thurairajah Tambimuttu (15 August 1915 – 23 June 1983) was a Tamil poet, editor, critic and publisher, who for many years played a significant part in the literary scenes of London and New York City. In 1939 he founded the respect ...

and

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

. Orwell helped Marson edit the programme before she turned it into ''Caribbean Voices''. She also established a firm friendship with Mary Treadgold, who eventually took over her role when Marson returned to Jamaica. However, "despite these experiences and personal connections, there is a strong sense, in Marson's poetry and in Jarrett-Macauley's biography ''The Life of Una Marson''], that Marson remained something of an isolated and marginal figure". Marson's radio programme, ''Caribbean Voices'', was subsequently produced by

Henry Swanzy Henry Swanzy (14 June 1915 – 19 March 2004) was an Anglo-Irish radio producer in Britain's BBC General Overseas Service who is best known for his role in promoting West Indian literature particularly through the programme ''Caribbean Voices'' ...

, who took over after she returned to Jamaica.

After World War II

Details of Marson's life are limited, and those pertaining to her personal and professional life post-1945 are particularly elusive. In 1945, she published a poetry collection entitled ''Towards the Stars''. This marked a shift in the focus of her poetry: while she once wrote about female sadness over lost love, poems from ''Towards the Stars'' were much more focused on the independent woman. Her efforts outside of her writing seem to work in collaboration with these sentiments, though conflicting stories offer little concrete evidence about exactly what she did. Sources differ in outlining Marson's personal life during this time. Author Erika J. Waters states that Marson was a secretary for the Pioneer Press, a publishing company in Jamaica for Jamaican authors. This source believes that she then moved in the 1950s to

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, US, where she met and married a dentist named Peter Staples. The couple are reported to have divorced, allowing Marson to travel to England, Israel, then back to Jamaica; following a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

, she died aged 60 in May 1965, at St. Josephs Hospital, Kingston, and was buried on 10 May at the Half-Way-Tree Parish Cemetery. Another source, written by Lee M. Jenkins, offers a very different take on Marson's personal life and says that Marson was sent to a mental hospital following a breakdown during the years 1946–49. After being discharged, Marson founded the Pioneer Press. This source claims that she spent a period in the 1950s in the US, where she had another breakdown and was admitted to St. Elizabeth's Asylum. Following this, Marson returned to Jamaica, where she rallied against Rastafarian discrimination. She then went to Israel for a women's conference, an experience that she discussed in her last BBC radio broadcast for ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

''. The conflicting details regarding Marson's personal life show that there is very little information available about her. For example, Waters' article quotes Marson's criticisms of ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...

'', yet provides no citation for this work. In combination with this is the limited record of her writings during this time; many of her works were left unpublished or circulated only in Jamaica. Most of these writings are only available in the

Institute of Jamaica The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation:Kipling's poem of the same title. Denise deCaires Narain has suggested that Marson was overlooked because poetry concerning the condition and status of women was not important to audiences at the time the works were produced. Other critics, by contrast, praised Marson for her modern style. Some, such as Narain, even suggest that her mimicking challenged conventional poetry of the time in an effort to criticize European poets. Regardless, Marson was active in the West Indian writing community during that period. Her involvement with ''Caribbean Voices'' was important to publicising Caribbean literature internationally, as well as spurring nationalism within the Caribbean islands that she represented.

Legacy

Marson's poetry was included in the 1992 anthology ''

'', edited by

. In 1998, Delia Jarrett-Macauley published the original full-length biography ''The Life of Una Marson, 1905–1965'' (

Manchester University Press Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England, and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with t ...

, reprinted 2010). On 10 October 2021, Marson was honoured with a

Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...

. In 2022,

Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British Jamaicans, British-Jamaican comedian, actor and writer. He gained success as a Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ' ...

's production company, Douglas Road Productions, made a television documentary entitled ''Una Marson, Our Lost Caribbean Voice'', broadcast on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

television, in which Delia Jarrett-Macauley asks: "How could we have let someone of Una Marson's calibre just disappear?"; the film included dramatisations of Marson's life, in which she was played by Seroca Davis. The Una Marson Library was opened by

Southwark Council Southwark London Borough Council, also known as Southwark Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour major ...

near the

Old Kent Road Old Kent Road is a major thoroughfare in South East London, England, passing through the London Borough of Southwark. It was originally part of an ancient trackway that was paved by the Romans and used by the Anglo-Saxons who named it Wæcel ...

in south London on 2 February 2024 as part of the redevelopment of the Aylesbury Estate in south London, recognising Marson as a "local hero".

Bibliography

*''Tropic Reveries'' (1930, poetry) *''Heights and Depths'' (1932, poetry) *'' At What a Price'' (1933, play) *''Moth and the Star'' (1937, poetry) *''London Calling'' (1938, play) *''Pocomania'' (1938, play) *''Towards the Stars'' (1945, poetry) *''Selected Poems'' (

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. Poet Kwame Dawes has said: "Peepal Tree Press's position as the leading pu ...

, 2011)

References

Sources

*Banham, Martin,

Errol Hill Errol Gaston Hill (5 August 1921 – 15 September 2003) was a Trinidadian-born playwright, actor and theatre historian, "one of the leading pioneers in the West Indies theatre".Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to West Indian Literature'', Collins ...

& George Woodyard (eds). "Introduction" and "Jamaica". In ''The Cambridge Guide to African & Caribbean Theatre''. Advisory editor for Africa, Olu Obafemi. NY & Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1994. 141–49; 197–202. *Narain, Denise deCaires. "Literary Mothers? Una Marson and

Phyllis Shand Allfrey Phyllis Byam Shand Allfrey (24 October 1908 – 4 February 1986) was a West Indian writer, socialist activist, newspaper editor and politician of the island of Dominica in the Caribbean. She is best known for her first novel, '' The Orchid Hous ...

". ''Contemporary Caribbean Women's Poetry: Making Style''. New York & London: Routledge, 2002. * Jarrett-Macauley, Delia. ''The Life of Una Marson''. Manchester (UK): Manchester University Press, 1998. . Reprinted 2010, . *Jenkins, Lee M. "Penelope's Web: Una Marson, Lorna Goodison, M. Nourbese Philip". In ''The Language of Caribbean Poetry: Boundaries of Expression''. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2004. *Marson, Una. Assorted writings in Linnette Vassell (ed.), ''Voices of Women in Jamaica, 1898–1939'', Mona & Kingston: Dept of History, UWI, 1993. * Ramchand, Kenneth. "Decolonization in West Indian Literature". '' Transition'', 22 (1965):48–49. *Rosenberg, Leah. "The Pitfalls of Feminist Nationalism and the Career of Una Marson". In ''Nationalism and the formation of Caribbean Literature''. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. * Donnell, Alison. "Contradictory (W)omens?: Gender Consciousness in the Poetry of Una Marson". ''Kunapipi'' (1996). *Donnell, Alison, and Sarah Lawson Welsh. ''The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature''. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. *Waters, Erika J. "Una Marson". ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'', vol. 157: ''Caribbean and Black African Writers'', third series. 207. * Bourne, Stephen. ''Under Fire - Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45''. The History Press, 2020. .

External links

Una Marson: Race and Censorship in 1930s Theatre
, Collection in Focus , British Library *Denise deCaires Narain
"Marson, Una Maud Victoria"
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'', Oxford University Press, 2004. *. ''Black History Month'' website.
Biography of Una Marson
an
limited preview of the book in Google Books
*Una Marson'
''Heights and Depths''
within th
Digital Library of the Caribbean
*Una Marson'
''The Moth and the Star''
within th
Digital Library of the Caribbean
*Una Marson'
''Tropic Reveries''
within th
Digital Library of the Caribbean
* .
"Una Marson"
at Making Britain, The Open University. * Al Creighton
"A little known poet with an important place in the history of Jamaican writing"
''

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'', 16 February 2014. * Lisa Tomlinson
"Una Marson: Cultural And Literary Nationalist"
AAIHS, 26 March 2016. * Leila Kassir
"Una Marson: Writer, Activist & the first Black woman broadcaster at the BBC"

Senate House Library Senate House is the administrative centre of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, London, immediately to the north of the British Museum. The Art Deco building was constructed between 1932 and 1937 as the first phase ...

, University of London, 6 August 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marson, Una 1905 births 1965 deaths 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights 20th-century British women writers 20th-century Jamaican poets BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC radio producers Black British activists 20th-century Black British people Black British radio presenters Black British women writers Black British writers British women dramatists and playwrights British women television journalists English feminists Jamaican dramatists and playwrights Jamaican women dramatists and playwrights Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom Jamaican feminists Jamaican women poets Recipients of the Musgrave Medal Jamaican radio presenters Jamaican women radio presenters Women radio producers