Biography Essay

Martin Carter, a Guyanese, is one of the most important poets of the Caribbean in the post-World War II era. Writing out of what has come to be known as the "protest tradition" in West Indian poetry, Carter made an indelible mark on West Indian verse when he published his Poems of Resistance from British Guiana during the violent days of 1954, when British troops had moved into his country, suspended its constitution, and deposed the legitimately elected government of Cheddi Jagan. Along with Derek Walcott and Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Carter is a leading Caribbean poet.

Born in Georgetown on 7 June 1927 and educated at Queens College, Martin Wylde Carter joined the British Guiana Civil Service and soon became the secretary to the superintendent of prisons. By 1950, however, he began to take his writing and politics more seriously. When the British entered Guyana in 1953, Carter's involvement in radical...