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Ralph De Boissiere

Born

in Trinidad and Tobago

October 16, 1907

Died

February 16, 2008

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories

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Ralph de Boissière was born in Port of Spain, the son of Armand de Boissiere, a solicitor, and Maude Harper, an Englishwoman who died three weeks later.[1] He attended Queen's Royal College and during this time discovered the Russian authors, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gorky, Chekhov, Pushkin and Gogol, who were to remain a lasting influence:
“They wrote of a vast country in which the weight of tsarism was destroying millions. ...crying out against an entire system in which the guilt of the rulers was being ignored while millions were dying from neglect. ... The writers of that time are still my favourites...A hundred and fifty years later the crimes against mankind have multiplied and are choking us all. But not many today write with that call to h Ralph de Boissière was born in Port of Spain, the son of Armand de Boissiere, a solicitor, and Maude Harper, an Englishwoman who died three weeks later.[1] He attended Queen's Royal College and during this time discovered the Russian authors, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gorky, Chekhov, Pushkin and Gogol, who were to remain a lasting influence:
“They wrote of a vast country in which the weight of tsarism was destroying millions. ...crying out against an entire system in which the guilt of the rulers was being ignored while millions were dying from neglect. ... The writers of that time are still my favourites...A hundred and fifty years later the crimes against mankind have multiplied and are choking us all. But not many today write with that call to humankind, that call which, though muffled by the censor, could still boom out its message.”
Initially he wished to become a concert pianist but on leaving school took a job as a salesman which enlightened him to the living and working of ordinary Trinidadians.[2] He then became involved in left-wing and trade union politics and also wrote for Trinidad's first literary magazine, The Beacon which he helped establish and where he met among others the writer C. L. R. James.[1][3] In 1935 he married Ivy Alcantara (died 1984) and they had two daughters.[1] But in 1947, having lost his job and unable to find another one because of his political activities, he and his family left the country for Chicago, afterwards moving to the Australian city of Melbourne in 1948. He found work in Australia as salesman and a factory-hand. Aged 42, de Boissière settled into a clerical job from which he retired in 1980.[2]
In Australia he joined the Communist Party and had his first novel, Crown Jewel published in 1952 by the leftist Australasian Book Society. Like all his work this depicts the struggles of the working class with realistic sympathy, culminating with a portrayal of a 1937 strike in Trinidad brutally put down by police shooting. Since then he has written four more novels and been translated into Polish, German, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech and Chinese.[1] His work has been described by one critic as "combin[ing] social realism and political commitment with a concern for the culture of the feeling within the individual in a way that is unique not only among West Indian writers but among writers with a social conscience anywhere in the world."
In 2007, his centenary year, Ralph de Boissière married his longtime companion, Dr. Annie Greet, his fourth novel, Call of the Rainbow was published in Melbourne, and in November, he received an honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. During 2009, his autobiography, Life on the Edge, is being prepared for publication in Trinidad.
De Boissière died in Melbourne on 16 February 2008.[4] ...more

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Ralph De Boissiere’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 30 ratings · 5 reviews · 5 distinct works

	Crown Jewel 3.88 avg rating — 16 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rum and Coca Cola 4.14 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1984 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No Saddles for Kangaroos 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	CROWN JEWEL 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Crown jewel 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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