Ralph de Boissière
Encyclopedia
Ralph Anthony Charles de Boissière (16 October 1907 – 16 February 2008) was an Trinidad
-born Australian social realist
novelist.
Ralph de Boissière was born in Port of Spain
, the son of Armand de Boissière, a solicitor, and Maude Harper, an English woman who died three weeks later. He attended Queen's Royal College and during this time discovered the Russian authors, Tolstoy
, Turgenev, Gorky
, Chekhov
, Pushkin and Gogol, who were to remain a lasting influence:
Initially he wished to become a concert pianist but on leaving school took a job as a salesman which enlightened him to the living and working of ordinary Trinidadians. He then became involved in left-wing and trade union politics and also wrote for Trinidad's first literary magazine, The Beacon which he helped establish and where he met among others the writer C. L. R. James
. In 1935 he married Ivy Alcantara (died 1984) and they had two daughters. But in 1947, having lost his job and unable to find another one because of his political activities, he and his family left the country for Chicago, afterwards moving to the Australian city of Melbourne in 1948. He found work in Australia as salesman and a factory-hand. Aged 42, de Boissière settled into a clerical job from which he retired in 1980.
In Australia he joined the Communist Party
and had his first novel, Crown Jewel published in 1952 by the leftist Australasian Book Society. Like all his work this depicts the struggles of the working class with realistic sympathy, culminating with a portrayal of a 1937 strike in Trinidad brutally put down by police shooting. Since then he has written four more novels and been translated into Polish, German, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech and Chinese. His work has been described by one critic as "combin[ing] social realism and political commitment with a concern for the culture of the feeling within the individual in a way that is unique not only among West Indian writers but among writers with a social conscience anywhere in the world."
In 2007, his centenary year, Ralph de Boissière married his longtime companion, Dr. Annie Greet, his fourth novel, Call of the Rainbow was published in Melbourne, and in November, he received an honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. During 2009, his autobiography, Life on the Edge, is being prepared for publication in Trinidad.
De Boissière died in Melbourne on 16 February 2008.
Unpublished:
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
-born Australian social realist
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
novelist.
Ralph de Boissière was born in Port of Spain
Port of Spain
Port of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...
, the son of Armand de Boissière, a solicitor, and Maude Harper, an English woman who died three weeks later. He attended Queen's Royal College and during this time discovered the Russian authors, Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
, Turgenev, Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
, Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
, Pushkin and Gogol, who were to remain a lasting influence:
Initially he wished to become a concert pianist but on leaving school took a job as a salesman which enlightened him to the living and working of ordinary Trinidadians. He then became involved in left-wing and trade union politics and also wrote for Trinidad's first literary magazine, The Beacon which he helped establish and where he met among others the writer C. L. R. James
C. L. R. James
Cyril Lionel Robert James , who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J.R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts...
. In 1935 he married Ivy Alcantara (died 1984) and they had two daughters. But in 1947, having lost his job and unable to find another one because of his political activities, he and his family left the country for Chicago, afterwards moving to the Australian city of Melbourne in 1948. He found work in Australia as salesman and a factory-hand. Aged 42, de Boissière settled into a clerical job from which he retired in 1980.
In Australia he joined the Communist Party
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
and had his first novel, Crown Jewel published in 1952 by the leftist Australasian Book Society. Like all his work this depicts the struggles of the working class with realistic sympathy, culminating with a portrayal of a 1937 strike in Trinidad brutally put down by police shooting. Since then he has written four more novels and been translated into Polish, German, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech and Chinese. His work has been described by one critic as "combin[ing] social realism and political commitment with a concern for the culture of the feeling within the individual in a way that is unique not only among West Indian writers but among writers with a social conscience anywhere in the world."
In 2007, his centenary year, Ralph de Boissière married his longtime companion, Dr. Annie Greet, his fourth novel, Call of the Rainbow was published in Melbourne, and in November, he received an honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. During 2009, his autobiography, Life on the Edge, is being prepared for publication in Trinidad.
De Boissière died in Melbourne on 16 February 2008.
Novels
- Crown Jewel (Australasian Book Society, 1952; Allison and Busby, 1981)
- Rum and Coca-Cola (Australasian Book Society, 1956; Allison and Busby, 1984)
- No Saddles for Kangaroos (Australasian Book Society, 1964)
- Call of the Rainbow (L.A. Browne, Melbourne, 2007)
Unpublished:
- Homeless in Paradise
External links
- Ralph (Anthony Charles) de Boissière Biography with discussion of his novels
- Citation for honorary degree