- Professor Edward Baugh Passes
Professor Edward Baugh, a well-known Jamaican poet, author, academic, and orator, has died. He was 87.
Baugh died on Saturday, the reason of his death unknown.
As a poet, essayist, and lecturer, the Jamaican made significant contributions to Caribbean literature. His critical writings on anglophone Caribbean poetry attracted international attention.
Baugh, who was born in Port Antonio, Portland, in 1936, pursued his studies at the University College of the West Indies, where he got a degree in English.
He eventually earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Manchester, where he focused on Arthur Symons’ poetry.
Baugh sprang to prominence as one of the poets featured in ‘Seven Jamaican Poets’ (1971), and his work has appeared in other anthologies, including ‘From Our Yard’ and ‘The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse’.
Several of his individual poems, notably ‘Truth and Consequence,’ ‘The Carpenter’s Complaint,’ and ‘The Warner Woman,’ are generally praised and anthologized.
Notably, Baugh was considered as a notable scholar of Caribbean poetry, particularly for his study on the work of St Lucian Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. In 2007, the Jamaican even edited Walcott’s ‘Selected Poems’.
Baugh’s immense contributions in shaping a distinct Caribbean approach to literary criticism were evident in his book, ‘West Indian Poetry 1900-1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation’, and his influential essays such as ‘Towards a West Indian Criticism’ and ‘The West Indian Writer and his Quarrel with History’.
He spent nearly 30 years teaching at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus, where he was Professor of English from 1978 until his retirement in 2001.
Baugh’s exceptional career was honoured with various awards, including the Order of Distinction, Jamaica’s fifth highest distinction, and the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in 1995.
