James, Cyril Lionel Robert (1901–1989)

Cyril Lionel Robert James (b. 4 January 1901; d. 31 May 1989), historian, philosopher, literary critic. C. L. R. James is well known outside his island home of Trinidad and Tobago as one of the twentieth century's leading intellectuals. His illustrious career as a writer spans several disciplines. His contributions to cultural studies, political philosophy, and West Indian creative and historical literature both predict and inform the late twentieth century's preoccupation with postcolonial studies and have earned him a place of high respect as an interpreter of both Marx's and Lenin's philosophies.

Throughout his life James was recognized as a brilliant student and teacher. When he emigrated to England in 1932, he established himself as a keen cricket commentator, writing for the Manchester Guardian. Later in his career he combined the history of cricket with autobiography to create a stunning cultural critique of the West Indies in Beyond a Boundary (1963). His novel Minty Alley, written in 1927, is a foundational text in the Caribbean literary tradition. His historical work, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938), remains a universally acclaimed account of the Haitian war for independence in relationship to the French Revolution.

James was a major figure in the Pan-African movement in the 1930s. The continual development of his political ideologies can be traced through his numerous and diverse essays, collected in several volumes. Both his essays and full-length works reflect a keen interest in and healthy skepticism for Marxism, Trotskyism, socialism, and notions of American democracy. In association with Trotsky's organization, with which he later broke, James spent fifteen years in the United States (1938–1953) lecturing and organizing black workers. A casualty of the McCarthy era, he was asked to leave the country because his activities were considered too radical. While awaiting deportation, James wrote Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In (1953), a literary critique of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, but also a political commentary on totalitarianism and American democracy. James periodically revisited the Caribbean and also traveled through Europe and Africa. In 1968, he was allowed to reenter the United States, where he taught at Federal City College for ten years. During the last decades of his life he continued to write and lecture widely, and received awards and accolades from around the world. He died in London, England, his adopted home.

See alsoLabor Movements .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Paul Buhle, ed., C. L. R. James: His Life and Work (1986), and C. L. R. James: The Artist as Revolutionary (1988).

Anna Grimshaw, The C. L. R. James Archive: A Reader's Guide (1991).

Anna Grimshaw, ed., The C. L. R. James Reader (1992).

Paget Henry and Paul Buhle, eds., C. L. R. James's Caribbean (1992).

Additional Bibliography

Dhondy, Farrukh. C.L.R. James: A Life. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.

King, Nicole. C.L.R. James and Creolization: Circles of Influence. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.

Worcester, Kent. C.L.R. James: A Political Biography. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.

                                            Nicole R. King