Kyk-Over-Al was "a forerunner in its efforts to stimulate a Caribbean theory and practice of literary criticism, addressing such issues as language and the use of vernacular, audience, the influence of metropolitan culture and the role of historical awareness in establishing a shared 'West Indian' identity.
[2] The magazine was named for Kyk-Over-Al ("see over all"), the ruined Dutch fort on a small island near the confluence of the Essequibo, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni Rivers in the Guyanese interior.
[4] Apart from fiction and poetry, Kyk-Over-Al published a number of groundbreaking critical essays, many written by Seymour, examining the work of West Indian writers and attempting to define the literature that began to emerge in the Caribbean in the years after World War II.
[5] In 1962, Seymour, by profession a civil servant, resigned from his position as head of government information services after a disagreement with Premier Cheddi Jagan over the political implications of his role.
In 1984, to commemorate Seymour's 70th birthday as well as his long and crucial involvement in West Indian literary affairs, a volume called AJS at 70 was published, edited by Ian McDonald.