Rosa Guy

Rosa Cuthbert Guy (/ˈɡiː/) (September 1, 1922[1] – June 3, 2012) was a Trinidad-born American writer who grew up in the New York metropolitan area.

Raised in foster homes, she later was acclaimed for her books of fiction for adults and young people that stressed supportive relationships.

She and her younger sister Ameze were left with relatives when their parents Audrey and Henry Cuthbert emigrated in 1927 to the United States.

A co-worker introduced her to the American Negro Theatre, where she studied acting; other graduates included Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier.

[6] Its members and participants included Willard Moore, Walter Christmas, Maya Angelou, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde, Alice Childress, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Douglas Turner Ward.

[4] Guy also belonged to On Guard for Freedom, a Black nationalist literary organization founded by Calvin Hicks on the Lower East Side of New York City.

On Guard was active in the political realm, supporting Congolese liberation leader Patrice Lumumba and protesting the United States-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion at Cuba.

[10] Most of Guy's books are about the dependability of family members and friends who care and love each other, and her trilogy of novels for young people — The Friends (1973), Ruby (1976), and Edith Jackson (1978) — is based on her own personal experiences, as well as those of many young African Americans growing up in New York City with little or no money or support from family.

"[11] In Guy's story, Desiree is a beautiful peasant who falls in love with a handsome upper-class boy whom she saved in an accident.

Inscription by Guy on the flyleaf of a copy of her novel A Measure of Time : "To Walter Gaye my old and dear friend luck! Rosa Guy 6/29/83" (with a pencilled footnote in a different hand: "and ex- 'husband' ")
Pencilled note (in the same copy of A Measure of Time as the above inscription): "Rosa does not acknowledge this, but Dorine is a portrait of her stepmother "