Walter Adolphe Roberts (1886–1962) 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 ...

n born novelist, poet, and historian. Roberts served as a war correspondent during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, editor of multiple periodicals including

Ainslee's Magazine ''Ainslee's Magazine'' was an American literary periodical published from 1897 to December 1926. It was originally published as a humor magazine called '' The Yellow Kid'', based on the popular comic strip character. It was renamed ''Ainslee's' ...

, and authored over a dozen books.

Life and career

Roberts was born in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

on 15 October 1886. He was an editor, war correspondent, and the author of several books of poetry and prose, as well as a historian of

and the

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 ...

. In 1938 Roberts met

Wilfred Adolphus Domingo Wilfred Adolphus Domingo (W. A. Domingo) (26 November 1889 – 14 February 1968)Floyd-Thomas, J. M."Domingo, Wilfred Adolphus" in Wintz, Cary D., and Paul Finkelman (eds), ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: Volume 1, A–J'', Routledge, 2 ...

and the two formed the Jamaica Progressive League. During his lifetime Roberts received several awards, including the Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica (1941), the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Order of Merit (1950), the Gold Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica (1954), the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (1961), and was posthumously awarded the Commander of the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican Government (1977). He died in London at the age of 76, on 13 September 1962.

Bibliography

* ''Pierrot Wounded and Other Poems'', Britton Publishing Company, 1919 * ''Pan and Peacocks-Poems'', Four Seas Company, 1928 * ''The Haunting Hand'', MacCauley Company, 1926 * ''The Mind Reader'', MacCauley Company, 1929 * ''The Moralist'', Mohawk Press, 1931 * ''The Top Floor Killer'', Nicholson and Watson, 1935 * ''The Pomegranate'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1978 * ''Royal Street: A Novel of Old New Orleans'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1944 * ''Brave Mardi Gras: A New Orleans Novel of the '60s'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1946 * ''Creole Dusk'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1948 * ''The Single Star'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1949 * ''Six Great Jamaicans'', Pioneer Press, 1952 * ''Havana: The Portrait of a City'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1953 * ''Jamaica: The Portrait of an Island'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1955 * ''Caribbean Narrative'', Heinemann, 1966, * ''New Ships: An Anthology of West Indian Verse'', Del Rey, 1978

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Walter Adolphe 1886 births 1962 deaths 20th-century Jamaican male writers 20th-century Jamaican writers