Sir Derek Walcott

sir derek walcott

Supporter of the Arts

In his youth Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, as well as Boston Playwrights’ Theatre later during his career as a poetry professor.

Nobel Laureate in Literature

Highly acclaimed as the “Caribbean Community’s greatest poet, playwright and theatrical director”, Sir Derek Walcott received the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.

Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Lucia

On February 22nd 2016, Walcott received the accolade as an award for his exceptional and outstanding national service to Saint Lucia.

Memoir

Described as the “Caribbean Community’s greatest poet, playwright and theatrical director”, and a literary laureate of high acclaim, Sir Derek Walcott received the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992, generating much pride among his fellow Caribbean citizens.

Early Life and Education

Derek Walcott was born, along with his twin brother, the future playwright Roderick Walcott, on January 23, 1930, in Castries, St Lucia, Helen of the West Indies. Walcott’s ancestry wove together the major strands of Caribbean history, an inheritance he described famously in a poem from the collection “The Star-Apple Kingdom” as having “Dutch, nigger, and English in me, / and either I’m nobody, or I’m a / nation”.

His parents were Alix Walcott, a school teacher, and Warwick Walcott, a government worker. Warwick died when the twins were one year old, leaving Alix the daunting task of bringing up the twins and their sister Pamela. Despite the early death of Warwick, who himself had been a painter and producer of plays, Warwick’s interests were to have a great influence on the artistic career of Derek. His mother was also an amateur actress who would recite Shakespearean verses in his presence, thus playing a critical role in harnessing his love for the art form.

Derek Walcott received his secondary education at the St. Mary’s College. He then won a scholarship to the University College of the West Indies in Jamaica having received a Colonial Development and Welfare scholarship, and in 1951 published the volume Poems. At the University College he pursued what he termed an indifferent degree in French, English and Latin, where he earned a BA degree. This is when he really began to develop his art of poetry. In 1957, he was awarded a fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation to study the American theater.

His first published poem, "1944" appeared in The Voice of St. Lucia when he was fourteen years old, and consisted of 44 lines of blank verse. By the age of nineteen, Walcott had self-published two volumes, 25 Poems (1948) and Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos (1949), exhibiting a wide range of influences, including William Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound.

This publication was funded by his mother whom he promised to refund. Derek took the personal responsibility to sell the books himself and pay his mother back. In 1950, he completed his first play, “Henri Christophe: A Chronicle in Seven Scenes”. In that same year he founded the St. Lucia Arts Guild and staged the play as its first production. Derek Walcott is father to Peter Walcott, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw and Anna Walcott-Hardy.

Career

Following his studies, Walcott moved on to Trinidad in 1953 where he founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959. He also started his career as a critic, teacher and journalist in Trinidad. Walcott spent most of years travelling between New York and Trinidad, where he lived for many years.

He was a professor of poetry at the University of Boston where he also founded the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre in 1981. Walcott taught literature and writing at the Boston University for more than two decades when he retired in 2007. In 2010, he went back to the classroom where he took on the appointment of Professor of Poetry at the University of Essex, having turned down a similar appointment at the Oxford University. He also serves as distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Alberta. Walcott was also an avid painter having been mentored by the professional Harold Simmons who had a significant impact on Walcott’s painting pursuits.

Some of His Works

His first collection of essays, What the Twilight Says (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), was published in 1998. Walcott’s epic book-length poem, Omeros, was published in 1990 to critical acclaim being praised as “Walcott’s major achievement” and was chosen by the New York Times Book Review for “Best Books of 1990”.

Awards and Prizes

On 22 February 2016, Walcott was awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Lucia for exceptional and outstanding service of national importance to Saint Lucia. Derek Walcott died on March 17, 2017 at his residence, Cap Estate, Gros Islet, Saint Lucia.

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References and Further Reading