Jarrett-Macauley, Delia, The Life of Una Marson, Manchester University Press, 1998. Reprinted 2010, ISBN 9780719082566. Taught myself law from books borrowed from the public library. I achieved my bachelor’s degree in 1967 and can proudly say I became the first clerk of courts, then chief clerk of the court at Clarkenwell. Donnell, Alison, and Sarah Lawson Welsh. The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. Marson's radio programme, Caribbean Voices, was subsequently produced by Henry Swanzy, who took over after she returned to Jamaica. [26] Life after World War II (1945–65) [ edit ]

In 1937, Marson wrote a poem called "Quashie comes to London", which is the perspective of England in a Caribbean narrative. In Caribbean dialect, quashie means gullible or unsophisticated. Although initially impressed, Quashie becomes disgusted with England because there is not enough good food there. The poem shows how, although England has good things to offer, it is Jamaican culture that Quashie misses, and therefore Marson implies that England is supposed to be "the temporary venue for entertainment". [20] The poem shows how it was possible for a writer to implement Caribbean dialect in a poem, and it is this usage of local dialect that situates Quashie's perspective of England as a Caribbean perspective. That same year she was a delegate at the British Commonwealth League conference at Grosvenor Place, London and spoke of the deplorable malnutrition of the people of Jamaica.Kinky Hair Blues” by UnaMarsonis about a woman who is clearly struggling with not only her skin tone but also with the texture of her hair. At the beginning of the poem she is happy or at least satisfied with her hair texture and her skin tone. The connection between hair, skin tone and finding and keeping a man is also explored. Straight hair and a lighter skin tone equal a family and happiness to the woman in the poem. There is a clear feeling of inadequacy based solely on one’s appearance and the notion of light skin being “better” or somehow superior to darker skin. The woman seems to believe she will be accepted by her male counterparts simply by turning away fromwho she really is, which is a dark skinned woman with natural hair. This notion that she is not beautiful or undeserving of a family because of her skin and hair appears to not be ingrained but an adaptation. a b DeCaires Narain, Denise, "Marson, Una Maud Victoria", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. In a small, sparsely furnished office in Kingston in the spring of 1928 Jamaica’s feisty first woman editor-publisher Una Marson proudly proclaimed, ‘This is the age of woman: what man has done women may do’. Born in 1905 in the county parish of St Elizabeth, Marson, the headstrong daughter of a Baptist parson rose to become an internationally famous feminist, poet, playwright, journalist, social activist and BBC broadcaster. In word and deed, Marson was a progressive intellectual with an incandescent intelligence whose ideas centred on women’s liberation, racial equality and cultural nationalism. Marson, Una. “The America I Have Discovered – Miami and Washington.” MS1944C, National Library of Jamaica.

Perhaps the most important and influential of Marson’s creative inventions for the BBC was Caribbean Voices, the literary segment of Calling the West Indies. First airing on 11 March 1943, it enabled her to establish an avenue through which peoples and cultures could speak to each other, putting forward the ideal of collaborative effort and mutual education. Historian Edmund Braithwaite has called the programme ‘the single most important literary catalyst for Caribbean creative and critical writing in English’.[21] However, while the BBC utilised her voice to foster imperial unity, Marson herself faced great prejudice from fellow colleagues who were often uncomfortable with her colour. Marson had always suffered bouts of depression, but in 1945, after having lived without family or close friends, working long hours, the depression resurfaced.[22] In 1936, Marson attended the 12 th Congress of the International Alliance for Women for Suffrage and Legal Citizenship in Istanbul as a delegate and spoke to a gathering about the pressing need to support the impoverished families of Jamaica. Though her work has been relatively under recognized, Una Maud Marson can be considered as one of the most versatile and creative female intellectuals in Jamaica’s literary heritage. A much- travelled woman, but spending most of her years in Jamaica, England and the United States, she was born on the 6th day of February, 1905 in Santa Cruz, St. Elizabeth to a Baptist pastor, Reverend Solomon Isaac Marson and his wife Ada Wilhelmina Mullings- Marson. She was the youngest daughter of her parents and attended Hampton High School, a traditional boarding school for girls in Malvern, St. Elizabeth. The United States was Miss Marson’s final residence out of Jamaica. She lived in Washington for almost a decade and continued to write; there she developed a new interest, that is, writing for children. In an effort to improve her writing of children’s as well as theatrical literature, she attended the George Washington University Workshop which specialized in a course of writing for children, and the Catholic University Drama School. In 1926, Marson was appointed assistant editor of the Jamaican political journal Jamaica Critic. Her years there taught her journalism skills as well as influencing her political and social opinions and inspired her to create her own publication. In fact, in 1928, she became Jamaica's first female editor and publisher of her own magazine, The Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan featured articles on feminist topics, local social issues and workers' rights and was aimed at a young, middle-class Jamaican audience. Marson's articles encouraged women to join the work force and to become politically active. The magazine also featured Jamaican poetry and literature from Marson's fellow members of the Jamaican Poetry League, started by J. E. Clare McFarlane.

Allan Wilmot by Kat Francois

Donnell, Alison. "Contradictory (W)omens?: Gender Consciousness in the Poetry of Una Marson". Kunapipi (1996). Al Creighton, "A little known poet with an important place in the history of Jamaican writing", Stabroek News, 16 February 2014.