Albert Gomes Biography

West Indian poet, editor, and politician, of Portuguese descent, born in Trinidad, educated at Granger Institute in Port of Spain. In 1930 he launched The Beacon, an influential literary magazine, radical both politically and in its literary experimentation; his contributions of poems such as ‘Reverie’ and ‘The Flesh’ were among the freest from outmoded Victorian conventions still prevalent at the time. In 1942 he became President of the Federated Workers Trade Union, and later held various cabinet posts in the Trinidad government. His autobiography, Through a Maze of Colour (1974), is an important document about literary and political activity, the two intimately related in the West Indies in the 1930s and 1940s. Selected Speeches (1944) foregrounds his anti-colonial political sentiments, which were of great consequence in his promotion of emancipated West Indian writing.