"Cyril-Lionel-Robert-James"(January 1 1901-May 1989)

aHe was an Afro Trinidadian journalist,socialist theorist,and writer.
He was born in Trinidad  and Tobago,then a British Crown Colony.The son of a schoolteacher from Tunapuna,Trinidad,he was strongly influenced by his mama who was an avid reader.

He was a gifted child who at age six won scholarship to Queens Royal College.After College,James worked a school teacher and as a cricket reporter.During this time he also wrote two novels,"La Divina Pastora"(1927) a "Triumph" (1929).With an interest in politics,he wrote a biography of  the Trinidadian labor leader, Arthur Cipriani,"The Life of Captain Cipriani," published in 1929.

In 1932,he immigrated to England where he reported cricket matches for the Manchester Guardian.Politically,James was a strong supporter of West Indian Independence.He wrote a pamphlet,"The Case for West Indian Self-Government," published in 1933.

James moved to London where he studied Karl Marx,Friedrich Engles,and Leon Trotsky.He initially joined the independent Labor Party (ILP) and became chairman of its Finchley branch. 
.He also wrote wrote for left-wing journals such as the New Leader and Controversy When James became a Marxist he left the ILP and formed the Revolutionary Socialist League.As a follower of  Trotsky,James was highly critical of Joseph Stalin and the British Community Party.



In 1936,he published "Minty Alley" a novel on his childhood in Trinidad.He also wrote a play about Toussaint L' ouverture,the leader of the Haitian revolution,and in 1936,Paul Robeson.
played the leading role in its production at the Westminster Theatre.

James published several books on politics including "Abyssinia and the Imperialists" (1936) and
"World Revolution 1917-1936" (1937).This historical account was highly critical of Stalin's 1924.
pronouncement,"Socialism in One Country," and provided support for the ideas Leon Trotsky.He
study of the Haitian revolution," "The Black Jacobins,"was published in 1938.

In that same year,he moved to America,where he lectured on political issues and continued to publish books about politics,including "Dialectical Materialism and the fate of Humanity" (1947),
"Notes on Dialectics"(1948)," "The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the USA"(1948), "State Capitalism and World Revolution" (1950),and "The Class Struggle" (1950).

James also wrote at length about the work of Walt Whitman & Herman Melville.In America,his Marxist writings caught the attention of Senator McCarthy and fellow right-wingers,in 1953,Under the threat of deportation  for having overstayed his visa by ten years.In his attempt to
remain in the USA,James,while being detained on Ellis Island,wrote a study of Herman Melville,
"Mariners,Renegades and Castaways:The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live in," and had copies of the privately published work sent to every member of  Senate.

James lived for a while in Africa but in 1958 returned to the West Indies.Influenced by the events
the Hungarian uprising in 1956,his book "Facing Reality" (1958) revealed  disillusionment with both Communsion and Trotskyism.Soon afterward he worked on a biography of George Padmore
and parts of the book appeared in the National journal.

In 1963 James published "Beyond Boundary," a combination autobiography and an analysis of  sports and politics.Other books by James include "Radical America" (1970) and "Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution" (1977),and "Radical America" (1970).

He moved back to London where he died.