1945 - 1955

Una Marson

“I will arise and go again to my fair Tropic Isle and sit beneath the palm trees that there forever smile...,”

- Excerpt from “Nostalgia,” from The Moth & The Star

  • Towards the Stars, a collection of poetry, was published in 1945
  • In 1945 Una Marson left England for a visit to the Caribbean and the United States, after which she returned to England.
  • She returned to Jamaica in 1946 and was admitted to the Bellevue Hospital for exhaustion, stress, fatigue and overwork; she recovered by 1948. 
  • In 1949 she was Editorial Director/organizing secretary of a printing project - the Pioneer Press. Its objective was to provide affordable publishing for Jamaican authors. Pioneer Press was financed by the Gleaner Company and under Una Marson’s control. She served as General Editor from 1949-1953.

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One of the works published under Una Marson's direction at Pioneer Press 

  • She wrote features for the Daily Gleaner while simultaneously working at the Pioneer Press, located on the same grounds as the Gleaner Company. She became somewhat of a mentor and patron of the arts. The first output of the Pioneer Press was in 1950 with the work of: Vic Reid, Ulric Simmons, Vera Bell, E.L.C. Aarons and Ethel Roverse titled 14 Jamaica short stories.

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Vic Reid, novelist


Some titles published under Pioneer Press include: 

  • The Capitals of Jamaica by Walter Adolphe Roberts
  • Buccaneer Bay by S.A.G. Taylor
  • Six Great Jamaicans by Walter Adolphe Roberts et al
  • Arawak Girl by H.G. DeLisser
  • Caribbean Anthology of Short Stories by E. Mittelholzer et al
  • Anancy Story and Dialect Verse by Louise Bennett et al
  • The Capture of Jamaica and Pages from our Past by S.A.G. Taylor
  • Maxie Mongoose and Other Animal Stories by Laurie Bird
1945 - 1955