William Francis Welch: April 2010

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Abney Park

I've lived in stoke newington for years and abney cemetery is a wonderful place that I've spent many happy hours wandering around on my own. There's all sorts of interesting graves - it used to be an unconsecrated cemetery so lots of dissenters and alchemists are burried there as well as the founder of the st johns ambulance brigade, so you occasionally get st johns tourist group. Its very safe, the worst you are going to see are gay cruisers - I take my kids there, don't worry.

The work for which Walrond is most remembered is his novel, Tropic Death, published in 1926. Many believe that it marked a milestone in the Harlem Renaissance, and compare it to Jean Toomer's Cane (Lewis, 765). In his book, Walrond experiments with dialect as he recreates "unfamiliar and marginal Creole cultures." (Lewis, 765)

For his efforts, Walrond is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and other funds from writer Zona Gale (Lewis, 765). In 1928, Walrond went abroad to write a novel about the Panama Canal, but never finished his book. When he left the United States in 1927, he traveled Europe extensively. He spent his last days living in obscurity in London, until his death in 1966 (Lewis, 765).