Edward Baugh ... So many major or significant West Indian writers cut their teeth on 'Bim'. - File

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Professor Edward Baugh smiled and said, "We are in the Caribbean" when the sound of soca drifted across the Undercroft, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, on Thursday afternoon.

The music, a warm-up for then upcoming climactic Carnival weekend, did not interrupt Baugh's informative yet light-hearted lecture on Frank Collymore and his contribution to West Indian literature through the publication Bim.

'Frank Collymore and West Indian Literature' was the first instalment in the Edward Baugh Distinguished Lecture series, organised by the Department of Literatures in English, UWI, Mona. Its head, Dr. Anthea Morrison, noted that Baugh was a professor in the department from 1978, until his retirement in 2001. He has published two books of poetry, A Tale From the Rainforest and It Was The Singing, and it was poetry that led to his first contact with Collymore and Bim.

Twice yearly magazine

That came in 1965, when Baugh went to the UWI's Cave Hill Campus to teach, the posting landing him at the source of a magazine named Bim, then published twice yearly. A few weeks after arriving in Barbados, "I chanced my arm and sent in a few poems."

That led to his first contact with Collymore, a favourable reply on February 24, 1965, which in turn led to a friendship and Baugh's first substantial article on West Indian Literature, Frank Collymore and the Miracle of Bim, and Baugh's shift in research from late Victorian British literature to West Indian literature.

Baugh said Collymore's contribution came in two ways, through his own poetry and short stories and also through editing and publishing Bim, the first issue of which appeared at the end of 1942.

"Bim came along at just the right time to meet a simmering need," Baugh said. That need was an outlet for West Indian writers, the number nine issue in 1948 reflecting a 'decisive shift' to the wider Caribbean, as there were contributions from Trinidadians and British Guyanese. After the 10th issue there was no returning to insularity and Baugh noted, "So many major or significant West Indian writers cut their teeth on Bim." Among them were George Lamming, Derek Walcott, the latter's first poems in Bim coming in its June 1949 issue.

Not smooth sailing

It was not all smooth sailing, though, as "there were influential figures who disparaged the idea of West Indian Literature", Baugh commented, reading some of the biting criticism and, through his correspondence, the adverse effect it had on Collymore.

What Baugh's colleagues think about him is indicated in a festschrift (a publication with contributions from the colleagues of the person being honoured) of the Journal of West Indian Literature presented by Professor Evelyn O'Callaghan, head of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Literature at UWI's Cave Hill Campus. And what Baugh thinks of Derek Walcott is reflected in Derek Walcott, launched officially by Dr. Norval Edwards, who described it as "the distillation of four decades of work" on a " ... challenging Walcott".

"His criticisms are textbook studies of the words 'careful' and 'rigorous'," Edwards said of Baugh, describing his approach as "erudite and authoritative without being authoritarian".

He said the book is destined to be the introduction to Walcott's work "for generations of students and academics".

It was not all speech on Thursday afternoon, as Franklin Halliburton and Yekengale added voice and music. AndBaugh, before beginning the lecture, noted that most of his favourite persons were present, including Professor Carolyn Cooper, who conceived of the lecture series.