A Reminiscence from the Archives:
Vol. 12, No. 48, Pages 245–248 (January–June 1969)
Most biographies begin with some reference to ancestry, and any story of Bim would be incomplete without some reference to the Y.M.P.C. Magazine, of which it is the natural successor.
The Young Men’s Progressive Club had started in late 1935, succeeding an earlier attempt at organisation known as The Young Men’s Philanthropic Society. First General Secretary was Jackie Evelyn, and it was largely through his efforts that the first club magazine appeared in January 1938. The second number was published in September of the same year, but by then it was clear that a magazine was too expensive a luxury for the infant club. The outstanding amount of the printing bill was close on a hundred dollars, and the club committee felt that the only thing to be done was to cut losses and give up the idea.
This is where I came into the picture. It seemed to me that the magazine could pay for itself. Volume 1, No. 1, had appeared completely without advertisements and the second number contained only two and those at quite unremunerative rates. My arguments, however, were falling on deaf ears, and so a trump card of some sort was imperative. This was produced by promising to take over the printing debt personally and to guarantee to relieve the Club of all financial involvement in future publications. In return the Club agreed to establish a Journal Committee with complete financial freedom for itself.
Number 3 appeared in December 1938 and contained some dozen advertisements, enough to foot the bill provided the sales of copies yielded the estimated sum. Unhappily, this target was not met, and the printing bill rose by twelve dollars. The question was one for personal decision: should we call it quits, or throw good money after bad?
The Journal Committee—Kenneth Tucker, Fab Hoyos and myself—decided to risk it and Mr. Val Gale agreed to extend me credit beyond the then hundred dollars plus. This was a big debt for 1939, and Bim should be eternally grateful to Mr. Val for his kindness and understanding.
Number Four came out in August of that year and we were able to clear off much of the debt, in addition to meeting the printing costs of that issue. We’d collected some thirty advertisements at a more realistic rate, and were in business.
Between August 1939 and the first issue of Bim regular publication was maintained and when I returned from a year’s duty sojourn in St. Kitts there was an appreciable sum in the kitty—this despite three cash gifts to the Club’s general account, made to pacify the Executive now anxious to resume their responsibilities!
By then the editorial structure of the Magazine had gone through appreciable change. It was no longer weighted as a Club report, but had been divided into two parts, a separate section being entirely devoted to creative writing.
This division had been prefaced by a quotation which was self-explanatory—”...and a voice said unto me: Hide not thy talent; write what thou dreamest, for it is written the young men shalt have vision, and these shall be the leaders of the people in the days that are to come...».
At first there was evidently some bashfulness among the budding authors. Stories, poems and articles either appear without signature or merely initialed—and at this distance of time some of the initials baffle me. W.T.B. and R.F.S. (Therold Barnes and Dick Stokes) showed early promise, and the former was to become a tremendous help, both to the Magazine and later to Bim.
Happily it would seem that these first efforts were well received for next issue, except for a few unsigned “fillers” that seem vaguely familiar, all creative work was fully acknowledged. O. R. Marshall (now Professor) contributed two pieces, one not surprisingly a story of the racetrack; F. A. Collymore’s name appears for the first time: and there is an undoubted improvement of standards.
This particular issue carries a red cross on the cover and all profits from it were donated to the Red Cross Fund.
By 1941 the Journal Committee had expanded to five; Kenneth Tucker, Dick Stokes, Therold Barnes, Trevor Gale and Jimmy Cozier. Most of that year I was in St. Kitts and it was there that the idea of Bim was really hatched.
Dick Stokes, then a travelling salesman, was in Basseterre, and we discussed the possibilities. The happy state of the Magazine accounts encouraged our belief that a purely literary magazine would have some chance of survival provided it contained advertising space. In any case, we felt, the Magazine had come through despite its inauspicious start; we were entitled to use some of the money now accumulating for the new venture.
Much correspondence followed between St. Kitts and Barbados, so that by the time I got back to Barbados in December all members of the Journal Committee were agreed that the idea should be followed through. We co-opted Frank Collymore—the best thing we ever did for West Indian Literature—and set to work to plan the operation.
Many meetings were held at Myrtle Villa then the Y.M.P.C. headquarters, and preparations hammered out. We divided up the canvassing of adverts, aiming for a minimum of $120, and this target was duly reached. But the two major decisions taken were, first, the name and second to woo contributions from non-members as well as members. We further decided—and I think this was also most important—to pay non-members for any work accepted.
For suggesting the name Bim I should like to take the credit, but must share with Therold Barnes. All sorts of names were being bandied around at one meeting, and I was doing my usual doodling when thinking. I’d written the word Bim and was experimenting with various styles of lettering when Therold saw the scribbles and asked why not that for a name. Actually, I’d been a bit diffident about making the suggestion myself, but was delighted when the others endorsed it. Bim has a crisp sound and has worn well. I doubt very much we could’ve done better.
The next step was not so easy: to persuade non-members to let us see their work. It was suggested that we could start with a short story competition, and this we did. Advertising in the Advocate we offered a prize of ten dollars for the best story of about 2,000 words received, intimating that we would also be willing to pay for other stories submitted if deemed suitable for publication.
The response was overwhelming, but grievously pathetic. There were over seventy “short stories” submitted, all but one far below standard. The exception was a delightful little tale called “Penny Do” by F. N. K. Mascoll, its author now lost to literature in the arms of the military. Colonel Mascoll now commands the Jamaican local forces and presumably his literary efforts are confined to Orders of the Day.
This was a disappointment, and to give the publication some better appearance of diversity, stories appeared by “Edgar Allan Chambers”, “Francis Appleton”, “George T. Belgrave”, and sundry pen names. These we wrote ourselves. Nevertheless, a start had been made, and we got on with the job of getting out Vol. 1, No. 2.
This time we had somewhat better luck. Mascoll again came up with the lead story, “Excurshun”, and other “outsiders” included I. B., John Wickham, P. K. Roach, Jane Cabriel, and Margaret Saint. Bim was now in business and has since never lacked contributors. No. 3 introduced Jan Williams, Lucy Norman, S. C. Skinner, Nora Stoute, William S. Arthur, Ursula Walcott, Sophie Hall.
A further word should be said about payment. Obviously we could not afford much. Seven and six pence to ten shillings for a poem, five to ten dollars for a short story, were the average payments, and it is good to record that these amounts were grate- fully acknowledged by all recipients. However small the payment, the budding author is very bucked by the mere fact that somebody finds his work worth paying for, and this, I truly believe, is the very foundation of Bim’s success.
More famous names were to come later, for by now a far greater hand was at the controls. I had gone to Trinidad, and Frank Collymore—not without some pressure and persuasion—had taken over.
“Colly” nursed the infant to vital manhood, and the rest of us gazed admiringly from afar. It was comforting to know that we had a hand in the launching, but the triumphant voyage to greatness was Colly’s doing—his, and purely his. True. Therold helped provide the pressure and the continuing persuasion, but he would be the first to give credit where it is undoubtedly due.
Colly’s role as the godfather of modern West Indian Literature has now become well recognised and it was particularly pleasing to an early associate to know that the University of the West Indies so gracefully joined in deserving tribute.
It is now to be hoped that Bim will continue to function, for it still has an important role to play in our cultural life. Printing is an expensive undertaking these days. That is no secret. But it would be a real tragedy if this magazine which has been the cradle of so much of our cultural expression foundered up on the money rocks.