A. J. Seymour

Arthur James Seymour (12 January 1914–25 December 1989), or A. J. Seymour, was a Guyanese poet, essayist, memoirist, and founding editor of the literary journal Kyk-Over-Al.

Born in Georgetown, British Guiana, to James Tudor Seymour, a land surveyor, and his wife Philippine, née Dey, A. J. Seymour attended the Collegiate School and the Guyanese Academy before entering Queen's College, British Guiana's most prestigious boys' school, on a Government Junior Scholarship in 1928.

He married Elma Editha Bryce, a teacher, on 31 July 1937. They had three daughters and three sons.

In 1933, he joined the British Guiana Civil Service as an unpaid volunteer, working in the Postal and Income Tax Departments before joining the Bureau of Publicity and Information. By 1954, Seymour had worked his way to the position of Head of Government Information Services. This was a troubling time for Guiana; the People's Progressive Party (PPP) government headed by Cheddi Jagan, which was elected in 1953, had been removed from office by the colonial authorities after just four and a half months, sparking a phase of civil and political unrest that was to last for over ten years.

In 1962, Seymour left the civil service and accepted the post of Information and Cultural Collaboration Officer of the Caribbean Organisation, based in Puerto Rico. He returned to Guiana in 1965, a year before Independence, and worked with the Demerara Bauxite Company (Demba), based in Mackenzie (the town was later renamed Linden) until 1971; first as Community Relations Officer, later as Public Relations Officer. In 1972 he served as Literary Co-ordinator for the first Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta), held in Guyana; in 1973 he rejoined the civil service as Deputy Chairman of the Department of Culture and Director of Creative Writing. He retired in 1979.

Over the nearly fifty years of his career, Seymour also held senior positions in a number of cultural institutions; among others, he was Honorary Secretary of the British Guiana Union of Cultural Clubs (1943–50), Deputy Chairman of the Guyana National Trust (1974–75), President of the British Guiana Music Festival Committee, and President of the International P.E.N. Club's British Guiana Centre.

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