Herbert George De Lisser

Born in Falmouth, Jamaica, in 1878, Herbert George de Lisser became one of the island’s best-known literary and newspaper voices. Reliable sources identify him as a Jamaican journalist and author, and note that he was educated in Kingston before building his career in the press.

De Lisser is especially associated with the Daily Gleaner, where he rose to editor-in-chief in 1904. Alongside his journalism, he wrote fiction that helped define early Jamaican and West Indian writing in English.

He is best remembered for novels including The White Witch of Rosehall, and for writing that drew on Jamaican society, landscape, and legend. He died in 1944, but his work remains an important part of Jamaica’s literary history.