24 March 1921 — 8 March 2018
Sir Theodore Wilson Harris was born on 24 March 1921 in New Amsterdam, British Guiana. He was educated at Queen's College in Georgetown.
Harris began his career as a government surveyor, leading expeditions into the interior rainforests and savannahs of Guyana. These experiences profoundly shaped his literary imagination. He initially wrote poetry before turning to novels and essays. His debut novel Palace of the Peacock, published in 1960, became the first in a quartet of works known as The Guyana Quartet. He went on to write over twenty novels, establishing a reputation for abstract, densely metaphorical prose that explored themes of consciousness and landscape.
Harris lived in the United Kingdom for much of his later life. He passed away on 8 March 2018 in Chelmsford, England, at the age of 96.
Harris is regarded as one of the most original and innovative voices in postcolonial literature. He received the Guyana Prize for Literature in 1987 and again in 2002, as well as the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2014. He was knighted for his services to literature.
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