Tom Redcam

Donna-Marie Tuck (University of Nottingham)
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Thomas Henry MacDermot was Jamaica’s first Poet Laureate and founder of a distinct line of Jamaican poetry that drew “its life and colour from Jamaica’s sun and air” (MacFarlane, xxi). Although recognised by W. Adolphe Roberts as Jamaica’s “first native-born literary journalist, her first important poet to be inspired by history, and the scene about him, her first critic who believed in the rightness of having a literature distinct from other lands” (

Six Great Jamaicans,

86), he, along with other early Caribbean writers, has suffered from relative scholarly neglect. Writing under the pseudonym “Tom Redcam”, he was also editor of the nationalistically leaning

The Jamaica Times

(1900-1920), during which time he was able to facilitate the establishment of a distinct…

1846 words

Citation: Tuck, Donna-Marie. "Tom Redcam". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3726, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3726 Tom Redcam 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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