I have known Mac Donald Dixon for most of my life. The earliest memories of him go back to primary school days at the Anglican school and his walking home with his mother up Trinity Church Road. One vivid memory I have recorded in a poem is of McD running down Church Road, his long hair flying and my cousin commenting with laughter on his flight. My other school remembrances are from St. Mary’s College where Dixon, showing early signs of financial entrepreneurship and marketing skills, used to sell bread and butter at the back of SMC to school boys while he read from exercise books his war stories of diving spitfires. I was one of his enthralled customers.
In 1967 after completing St. Mary’s College and going to work at the Royal Bank of Canada, I met McD for the first time, since the other glimpses of him were from a distance. He quickly became a mentor and has remained a friend ever since. In those years he already had a reputation as St. Lucia’s best known local, home-based poet, Derek Walcott then long resident in Trinidad and Tobago. McD was a friend of Roderick Walcott, a member of the influential St. Lucia Arts Guild, already acting and directing, as well as writing plays. Through him I joined the Guild and was soon on stage for the first time, being directed by Mr. Dixon. My love for and involvement with theatre were rooted in this introduction to drama.
As a writer, McD also catalyzed my nascent interest in and gift for literature, its reading and writing. I guess he found me an admiring disciple and we spent much time at the Voice bookshop, the library, Arts Guild rehearsals, Clarkie’s bar, the Bank bachelor’s quarters and related activities. In our circle in those years, the late sixties, were Roddy Walcott and his wife Stella who worked with us at the Bank (I remember spending about 2 weeks with Roddy and Stella and McD and others on Rat Island), Arts Guild actors, Patricia Ismond who later became an internationally recognized Walcott scholar, Pat Charles and Stanley Reid, a Barbadian living here at the time.
Stanley Reid, with Augustus Justin and Kenny Anthony started a literary magazine titled Link, in which most of us published our first poems and stories.
I went off to Cave Hill, UWI in 1969 and alongside literature and other studies continued my involvement in theatre as actor and director and began to write even more seriously, poems, stories, reviews. In 1973, McD paid me a huge compliment by asking me to write the Foreword to his first poetry collection Pebbles which had been edited by Paba Anthony, another enduring friendship from those years.
In my Foreword I wrote “I am convinced that since Walcott (Derek) you are the only St. Lucian poet writing truly about St. Lucia, yet in not so parochial a way that nobody else knows what you are talking about.” Kendel Hippolyte has frequently referenced the “literary and arts traditions” of Saint Lucia. My early comment placed Dixon in that clear line of our literary tradition. After Walcott, at 18, had published his 25 poems in 1948 (printed in Trinidad), he went on to publish two other early works, before his important In a Green night (1962) with the UK publisher Jonathan Cape brought him international attention. In the meantime, at home, only Hunter Francois (First and last poems, 1949) and Howick Elcock (Alpha, 1950) had produced single poetry collections. When in 1973, Dixon, as the voice of a new generation of Saint Lucian poets and dramatists brought out Pebbles, and then followed it with several other collections, he became the acknowledged successor to Walcott and the earlier home-based writers.
McD’s example and work opened the door to new writers who quickly appeared: Lee, Hippolyte, St. Clair, King, Augier, Martial, Mitchell and others. They brought out collections rapidly, influenced by Walcott and Dixon who had shown that local writing and publishing were valid and important artistic activities. (My Bibliography Saint Lucian Writers and Writing: an Author Index, Papillote Press, 2019) provides a listing of our writers and their works, across poetry, prose and drama).
Kendel Hippolyte has spoken often of his admiration for Dixon’s “industry.” Not only is McD a prolific writer of poetry, but has authored several plays, novels and short stories. The novels and short stories have been published while many of the plays have been produced and await publication. Even as we launch his latest novel A scream in the shadows, published by the important Papillote Press based in London and Dominica, he is already working on another, keeps sharing new poems with friends, writes the occasional review and plans are being made for filming one of his historical dramas, Kesnoh. And did I mention that he has been a painter? He has recently revived his photography producing some fascinating surrealistic work using computer editing techniques. He is one of those multi-gifted Caribbean artists who work successfully in several genres.
This veteran writer has made a parallel career in banking, is an expert in copyright and trade issues, and can be counted on in social gatherings to be a raconteur of local politics, the arts and culture, and of wherever the old talk leads.
In published articles and interviews I have always named McD as a mentor. Close friends probably know us as sparring partners, teasing each other constantly. I have often cited my gratitude that the creative artists of my generation, especially the writers, have kept respectful relationships, without searing quarrels or destructive disputes even as we recognize each others’ viewpoints, guard personal spaces, support each other (without maudlin flattery) in the work we do out of our common ground, this Sent Lisi, that is home and inspiration to us. Mac Donald Dixon has been one of our major corner stones and reference points and we are grateful for his faithfulness and long-dedicated contribution to the arts and culture of our island.
About the Author
John Robert Lee is a Saint Lucian poet, journalist, and librarian. His poetry and short stories have been widely anthologised. He reviews literature and theatre for local, regional and international print and on-line journals. His poetry and short stories have been widely anthologised. His two latest collection of poems, Collected Poems, 1975–2015 (2017), and Pierrot (2020) were published by Peepal Tree Press. Other publications include Saint Lucian Writers and writing: an author index of published works (Papillote Press 2019); and Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre: an Anthology of Reviews (compiled and edited with Kendel Hippolyte, CDF 2006). A graduate of the University of the West Indies, Lee has taught literature, creative writing and library science for many years. He has also worked as a journalist in newspapers, radio and television. He lives in Saint Lucia.
The tribute was delivered at the launch of Mac Donald Dixon’s crime mystery novel, A Scream in the Shadows, February 17th 2022, at the National Cultural Centre.