At the 25th February meeting of the Rotary Club of Anstruther, member Andrew Lindsay, who has family links to Guyana, spoke about the moving yet intriguing life of Guyanese novelist Edgar Mittelholzer (1909 – 1965).

Considered to be the first professional novelist to come out of the English-speaking Caribbean, Mittelholzer was of mixed descent, having forebears from Europe and Africa. Based in what Andrew described as the ‘cultural sterility’ of the Guyana of that time, there were enormous social and racial difficulties to be overcome as he worked in various menial jobs en-route to his first publication - Creole Chips in 1937.
Considered to be a ‘difficult’ writer, his novels range across the Caribbean in time and place dealing with ethnic groups, social classes and subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest.

In 1947 Mittelholzer decided to go to England, convinced that this would represent his only chance of succeeding as a writer. Altogether he published twenty-one novels, and two works of non-fiction, including his autobiographical, A Swarthy Boy.
From a difficult relationship with his father, his was a troubled life. Although honoured in many ways - including the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing - he sadly died by self-immolation; perhaps foretold in his novels.

Andrew concluded his talk by describing the ‘Memorial Lecture Series’, which today is Mittelholzer’s lasting legacy. Instituted by President of Guyana, Forbes Burnham and with a first lecture series delivered by author and critic A. J. Seymour in 1967, there have been fourteen lectures in the series so far. All by prominent Guyanese and with subjects including National Identity, Anthropology, Art, Literature, Amerindian language and culture and Calypso - a remarkable and unique archive for a developing nation.

A vote of thanks for a uniquely interesting talk was proposed by Eric Dewhirst.