Austin Clarke remembered for breaking barriers for black writers

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This article was published 27/06/2016 (3694 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Austin (Tom) Clarke is being remembered as a pioneering black Canadian writer who rose above an impoverished childhood in Barbados to achieve top literary honours, meet the Queen, and inspire generations of authors.

“Austin Clarke really is the grandfather of black Canadian literature,” acclaimed author Lawrence Hill said in a telephone interview Monday, a day after news of Clarke’s death broke.

“He’s the first black writer in Canada to become internationally renowned, to win major national prizes and to be celebrated internationally, including throughout the black diaspora.

“He really broke the barriers.”

Clarke died Sunday in Toronto at the age of 81. His literary friends and colleagues said his health had been ailing in the last couple of years, with symptoms of dementia, and he was in palliative care in recent weeks.

Clarke was known for exploring the Caribbean immigrant experience in his 11 novels, six short-story collections, four memoirs and two poetry collections.

His 2002 novel, the Bajan plantation story “The Polished Hoe,” won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Trillium Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, which earned him a private audience with the Queen.

“That was something huge, for a man born in a little cottage with a dirt floor, who ran around in bare feet all his childhood,” said Denise Bukowski, Clarke’s agent.

“He had a wonderful education in Barbados but he came from extreme poverty, and to end up having a private audience with the Queen? That was the highlight of his life.”

Born in Barbados in 1934, Clarke was disadvantaged but his mother was determined to give him a good education and put him through the prestigious Harrison College.

“He’s a rare artist-writer who actually does come from the working class and becomes this outstanding intellectual and man of letters in his life,” said Patrick Crean, Clarke’s longtime friend and former publisher.

Clarke immigrated to Canada to attend the University of Toronto in 1955. He became engrossed in the civil rights and black power movement while working as a journalist and broadcaster.

It was while Clarke was in New York to interview African-American novelist James Baldwin for the CBC in 1963 that he ran into Malcolm X. An “explosive and incendiary interview,” as CBC Radio describes it, can be heard on its website and on YouTube.

“He was very sympathetic, of course, to Malcolm X,” said Barry Callaghan, a writer, journalist and editor who was a longtime friend of Clarke’s.

“Back then, he spoke very angrily about the police as well as injustice meted out to blacks.”

Clarke’s first two novels were set in the West Indies: “The Survivors of Crossing” (1964) and “Amongst Thistles and Thorns” (1965). “The Meeting Point,” released in 1967, focused on the lives of West Indian natives living in Toronto.

“Clarke broke the mould of white Canada when he first began to publish in 1964, writing novels and stories populated with immigrant characters from the Caribbean,” said Crean.

“This was an early example of the literature of diversity and displacement, a quality which now informs our literature.”

His early success also defied the odds.

“People just assumed that black literature wouldn’t sell in Canada,” said Hill. “Even if you could find a publisher, which wasn’t easy, it wouldn’t be likely to sell.

“So he was a pioneer among black writers at a time when it was very, very hard to break in and to gain any respect.”

Clarke’s other books included “Storm of Fortune” and “The Question,” both of which were shortlisted for a Governor General’s Literary Award. In 2008, he won the City of Toronto Book Award for his 11th and final novel, “More.” He also wrote as “Tom” Clarke for publications in his homeland.

Between 1968 and 1974, Clark was a visiting professor at universities including Yale, where he set up a Black Studies program (he also set up the program at Harvard). He also worked as a cultural attache to the Barbadian Embassy in Washington.

In 1975, he was general manager of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corp. And in 1977, he ran unsuccessfully as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the Ontario provincial election.

Behind the scenes, Clarke had a wry wit, loved the Blue Jays, and entertaining friends with a fine pork roast and “splendid martinis.”

“If questioned about certain social conditions, he could seem like a very angry young man, even in his old age,” said Callaghan. “But questioned about other conditions, he could seem like a high-church Anglican pulling on his bishop’s gaiters.

“He was a complicated fella. There’s no easy answer to describing Austin.”

Clarke is survived by four daughters, a son and his ex-wife, Betty. A funeral was originally announced for July 9, although Crean said it might be changed to July 8, at St. James Cathedral in Toronto.