Edward Alston Cecil Baugh CD (10 January 1936 – 9 December 2023) was a Jamaican poet and scholar, recognised as an authority on the work of Derek Walcott,[Carolyn Cooper (27 November 2012), "6th Edward Baugh Distinguished lecture". Jamaica Woman Tongue.] whose Selected Poems (2007) Baugh edited, having in 1978 authored the first book-length study of the Nobel Prize-winning poet's work, Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision.[ "Edward Baugh", The Literary Encyclopedia.][ "Professor Edward Baugh, Jamaican poet and academic, has died", The Loop News, 10 December 2023.]
Biography
Edward Alston Cecil Baugh was born on 10 January 1936 in
Port Antonio, Jamaica,
[Grinam-Nicholson, Yvonne (22 July 2001), "Professor Edward Baugh – Living the years", The Jamaica Gleaner. .] the son of Edward Percival Baugh, purchasing agent, and Ethel Maud Duhaney-Baugh.
[ "Edward Alston Cecil Baugh", The West Indian Encyclopedia. .] He began writing poetry at Titchfield High School. He won a scholarship to study English literature at the University College of the West Indies and later did postgraduate studies at Queen's University in
Ontario, Canada, and at the University of Manchester in England, where he earned a PhD in 1964.
Baugh taught at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies from 1965 to 1967, then at the university's Mona campus from 1968 to 2001, eventually being appointed professor of English in 1978 and public orator in 1985.
In 2012, he was awarded a Gold Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica.
In March 2021, Baugh was announced as the co-recipient, together with Mervyn Morris, of the Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters.[ "Two Jamaican scholars honoured with Bocas Henry Swanzy Award", Jamaica Observer, 5 March 2021.]
Baugh died in Kingston early on 10 December 2023, at the age of 87,
Scholarly works
His scholarly publications include
West Indian Poetry 1900–1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation (1971);
Critics on Caribbean Literature (1978);
Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision (1978), the first book-length study of Walcott's work; and an annotated edition of Walcott's
Another Life (2004), with Colbert Nepaulsingh.
Chancellor, I Present (1998) collects a number of the citations Baugh prepared and delivered as Public Orator of The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, for the presentation of honorary degrees during the annual presentation of graduates ceremony.
Poetry
Baugh's poems appeared in various magazines and anthologies years before the publication of his first collection,
A Tale from the Rainforest (1988). This was followed by
It Was the Singing (2000) and
Black Sand: New and Selected Poems (2013).
Awards and honours
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1995: UWI Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Administration
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1995: Commander of the Order of Distinction (CD) for contributions to Literature, Education, and the University of the West Indies
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1999: Pelican Award (UWI Guild of Graduates)
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2012: Gold Musgrave Medal, Institute of Jamaica
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2021: Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters
Selected bibliography
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West Indian Poetry 1900–1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation (1971)
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Critics on Caribbean Literature (1978)
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Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision: "Another Life" (1978)
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A Tale from the Rainforest (1988)
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I Was a Teacher Too (1991)
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It Was the Singing (2000)
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Black Sand: New and Selected Poems (2013)
External links
