Elma Napier

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Before and after she settled in Dominica, expatriate writer EN published two volumes of autobiography, two novels, one volume of travel stories, and numerous short stories in Dominican and British journals. She also contributed articles to the local press of Calibishie in Dominica, and wrote for the Manchester Guardian. Her work colourfully depicts the Caribbean landscape and addresses the differences in experience and in the use of the land between creoles and expatriates. She deals with issues such as gender and racial inequities, and colonial dependency: some of her work evidences a deep, latent anger at Britain's exploitation of the West Indies and its people.

Milestones

23 March 1892

Elma Gordon-Cumming (later EN ) was born at the family seat at Altyre in Scotland.
Lundy, Darryl. “Elma Gordon-Cumming”. Our Family History: thePeerage.com.
Napier, Elma. Youth Is a Blunder. J. Cape.
29

1938

EN used the same pseudonym as before, Elizabeth Garner, to publish her second novel, A Flying Fish Whispered.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Herdeck, Donald E., editor. Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical-Critical Encyclopedia. Three Continents Press.
162

12 November 1973

EN died at her home in the seaside village of Calibishie in Dominica.
Herdeck, Donald E., editor. Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical-Critical Encyclopedia. Three Continents Press.
162

Biography

Birth and Background

23 March 1892

Elma Gordon-Cumming (later EN ) was born at the family seat at Altyre in Scotland.
Lundy, Darryl. “Elma Gordon-Cumming”. Our Family History: thePeerage.com.
Napier, Elma. Youth Is a Blunder. J. Cape.
29