Roberts, W Adolphe
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1886-1962) Jamaican editor, poet, journalist and author, in USA 1904-1949, initially involved in American literary life, who also wrote as by Stephen Endicott; his first book, Pierrot Wounded (coll 1919) was a volume of poems inspired by his apparently unfulfilled relationship with Edna St Vincent Millay; in his later career he became a significant advocate for Jamaican independence. He is credited as having written the first African American mystery novel in English, The Haunting Hand (1929), a weird fiction with hints of the supernatural. Of more direct sf interest is The Mind Reader: A Mystery (July 1927-January 1928 Ghost Stories; 1929), whose protagonist must combat his Antihero brother's attempts to use his occultish Psi Powers to rule the world. [JC]
Walter Adolphe Roberts
born Kingston, Jamaica: 15 October 1886
died Jamaica: 14 September 1962
works (selected)
- The Haunting Hand (New York: The Macaulay Company, 1926) [hb/George W Gage]
- The Mind Reader: A Mystery (New York: The Macaulay Company, 1929) [first appeared July 1927-January 1928 Ghost Stories: hb/Politzer]
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