C.L.R. James

In this book, author Louise Cripps recounts her memories of C. L. R. James, a writer and lecturer from Trinidad, in London during the thirties and subsequent decades. According to Cripps, she is probably the only person still alive who can recount the history of those days.

Cripps met James at a dinner party in London. James was a supporter of Trotsky, who had been expelled from the U.S.S.R. by Stalin. James and some dinner guests formed a group of Trotskyites who met at James's home to discuss world affairs.

The group produced a paper to express their views. James always wrote the lead article. Cripps handled the production duties and wrote some of the articles. Later, Trotsky suggested that all the groups in London join the Independent Labour Party. When they did, all the publications merged with James's under the title of his own group's paper, FIGHT.

The Independent Labour Party encouraged James to expand his considerable skills by also becoming an orator. Cripps read and edited James's speeches and writings; she also proofread and edited his only novel, Minty Alley, and did research in the British Museum for his major work, The Black Jacobins.

One night, James invited Cripps to go with him to see his friend Paul Robeson in Othello in London. It was then that they became lovers. He wanted to marry the already-married Cripps, but pregnancy intervened. However, she continued to see James until he left England in September 1938. After World War II began, Cripps and her son by her husband, author Bernard Glemser, to whom she had returned, fled to the United States. She met James again, and he repeated his proposal of marriage.

Circumstances prevented their union, however, and they parted a second time. Cripps and James kept in touch through letters and the exchange of books, and there existed a lifelong tie between them. Near the end of his life, when he was lecturing in London for the BBC, he spoke of Othello. She firmly believed that he must surely have remembered his Desdemona.