Vivian Virtue
Vivian Lancaster Virtue (13 November 1911 – 17 December 1998) was a Jamaican poet, translator and broadcaster who moved to England in 1960.[1][2]
Life and career
Virtue was born in Kingston, Jamaica, was educated there and was employed by the Jamaican Department of Public Works.[1] On his retirement from the civil service in 1960, he moved to London.[3]
He served as the assistant secretary, librarian and later vice-president of the Poetry League of Jamaica. He was a founding member and vice-president of the Jamaican Center of PEN International. He was also a member of the British Royal Society of Literature[4][1] and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[3]
Virtue translated poetry by José-Maria de Heredia from French into English as well as poems in Spanish by other Caribbean and Latin American poets.[3]
He received the Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica in 1960. On the occasion of the Commonwealth Arts Festival in 1965, he was commissioned to write a poem in honour of Marcus Garvey. His work appeared in various journals, anthologies and the collection Wings of the Morning (1938).[4] He frequently appeared on the BBC's Caribbean Voices radio programme.[5]
Virtue died in London in 1998 at the age of 87 after an extended illness from heart disease and bronchopneumonia.[2]
References
- 1 2 3 "Vivian Virtue papers, 1932-2000". Penn State University Libraries.
- 1 2 McLeod, Alan Lindsey (2013). Canon of Commonwealth Literature: Essays in Criticism. p. 103. ISBN 8120725670.
- 1 2 3 Benson, Eugene; L. W. Conolly (2005). "Virtue, Vivian Lancaster (1911-98)". Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Second Edition.
- 1 2 Balderston, Daniel; Mike Gonzalez (2004). Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003. p. 600. ISBN 0415306876.
- ↑ "Vivian Virtue Papers at Pennsylvania State University" (PDF). Archivists & Archives of Color Newsletter. 16 (1): 3. 2002.