Jamaica Kincaid: A Literary Companion

The subject, born in Antigua, Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson, was the oldest child of Annie Victoria Richardson Drew who married the carpenter and cabinet maker, John Drew, after her daughter was born. The child's biological father, a man she never knew, was a cab driver and chauffeur named Roderick Nathaniel Potter. He abandoned Annie two months before her daughter was born. Her mother's marriage to Drew produced three sons. Annie Drew, who was born in Dominica, shipped her daughter back and forth from Antigua to Dominica, sometimes for schooling, sometimes for punishment and sometimes to escape black magic or obeah,...