Dear Editor,
Guyanese-born Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, John Rickford, has published his memoir, “Speaking my Soul”. The book is subtitled, “Race, Life and Language”. It is a delight to read and it is stuffed full of captivating photographs, a feast for both the eyes and the mind’s eye. And the language is what you would expect from a former president of the Linguistics Society of America, plus much more. The euphony of Guyana’s vernacular seeps easily into his written words, as he describes his family, friends, education in Georgetown, romantic endeavours, encounters with the law, liming with his friend John Agard and other mostly Queen’s College boys, his first tentative approaches to Angela Marshall, now Mrs. Rickford for 50 years, and myriads of other recognizable Guyanese shenanigans of youth.
From the nostalgic landscape of Guyana, John moved to California, on an American scholarship to study Literature. He arrived, suitably embarrassed by the effortless ways newbies invariably make their entrances into a foreign land! He arrived a “red-man”, genetically half White, one-third Black, one-eight East Indian and one-thirty-second Amerindian but in his first year, he decided to identify as Black, in keeping with America’s definition by “a single drop”. John also switched his field of study from Literature to Linguistics.
After completing his Bachelors and Masters degrees, John returned to Guyana in 1974 and taught at the University of Guyana while completing field work for his Doctorate. He was hired by Stanford University in 1980 and once there, his stars got higher and brighter in academic achievements, institutional recognition and national prominence. He and Angela raised their family, deepened their roots and prospered in familial glow. He is now my friend. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and the memories he shared in this memoir, and Editor, I believe so will your readers.
Yours faithfully,
Tulsi Dyal Singh, MD
