The Editorial Team of the Journal of West Indian Literature (JWIL) joins many in Jamaica and beyond in mourning the loss of Edward Baugh, who passed away on December 9, 2023, at the age of 87. Eddie, as many knew him, was a distinguished poet, scholar, and teacher.
Eddie has been with us from the very start. His intellectual generosity, and dedicated commitment are indelibly marked on the inaugural issue of JWIL, and many that followed. Mark McWatt, in his introduction to the first issue in 1986, details the journal’s inception and early development, stemming from the success of the inaugural conference on West Indian Literature in 1981, where “Edward Baugh of the Mona campus of the U.W.I and Roberta Knowles of the College of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, planned the first conference which took place on the St. Thomas campus of the C.V.I.” (v). Eddie has been a part of our editorial advisory board since our first issue, a powerful presence in the journal, and was honoured with a special festschrift issue in 2006.
Edward Baugh was born in 1936, in Port Antonio, Jamaica. After completing his secondary education at Titchfield High School, he won a Jamaican Government Exhibition to the University College of the West Indies to do his B.A in English. He subsequently pursued post-graduate studies at Queen’s University in Ontario and the University of Manchester, where he obtained a Ph.D. in English in 1964.
He taught at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies for three years (1965-1967) and at the Mona campus for over thirty-three years (1968-2001). He became Professor of English at the University of the West Indies, Mona in 1978, and he has held visiting appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles; Dalhousie University; University of Hull; University of Wollongong; Flinders University; Macquarie University; the University of Miami; and Howard University. Editors of JWIL, both past and present, have been fortunate to count themselves among his students at the secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels.
Eddie’s reputation is rightfully associated with his expertise in Anglophone Caribbean poetry, particularly the work of Derek Walcott. As a celebrated poet in his own right, he infused his critical writing with a poet’s sensibility, showcasing precision and elegance in his clarity of expression. His analyses carefully attended to the intricacies of form and language, all the while remaining conscious of the social, cultural, and historical contexts that influence literary texts.
His acclaim extends beyond his work on Walcott, notably evinced through his 2009 biography of Frank Collymore. This biography was preceded by a touching tribute to Collymore in a 1993 JWIL issue, titled “Letter to the late Frank Collymore on his 100th Birthday” (Vol. 6, No. 1, July 1993). Beyond these endeavors, Baugh’s critical contributions, exemplified in essays such as “Goodison on the Road to Heartease” (Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1986) and “Lorna Goodison in the Context of Feminist Criticism” (Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1990), published in JWIL, stand as enduring benchmarks in the scholarship of the works of the Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison.
We invite you to revisit Eddie’s literary legacy, both within the pages of JWIL and beyond. In the commemorative “Edward Baugh: Special Festschrift Issue,” colleagues, fellow-poets, students, friends, and collaborators come together to celebrate his literary and academic accomplishments, offer personal reflections, and thank him.
For thirty years, we have had the privilege of collaborating with and publishing the pioneering contributions of Edward Baugh. Our condolences go out to all of Eddie’s friends, family, and colleagues, and especially to his beloved wife Sheila and daughters Sarah and Katherine.
We will miss him.
