Derek Walcott has been targeted this week by a vicious and systematic smear campaign against his candidacy for Oxford’s Professor of Poetry. Authors, academics and journalists internationally have received anonymous letters alluding to Walcott’s history of sexual harassment.
The accusations refer to incidents while Walcott held professorial posts at Boston and Harvard Universities.
Between 50 and 100 anonymous envelopes were sent to female fellows and female heads of colleges and departments in Oxford. These contained photocopied pages from The Lecherous Professor, a book recounting allegations made by a student at Harvard against the Nobel Prize-winning poet. The book, written by Linda Weiner and Billie Wright, examines incidents of sexual harassment on college campuses. In the photocopied six-page extract, it describes how Walcott, then a lecturer at Harvard, made inappropriate proposals to a student during a discussion of her work.
Authors across the world also received an anonymous note from a “group of women students at Oxford University” requesting that a letter be written to The Guardian and the University Press Office in objection to Walcott’s nomination.
The hand-written envelopes were mailed from Mount Pleasant in London.
Ankhi Mukherjee, a fellow of Wadham college and senior lecturer at the faculty of English described how she received her package on April 29.
“I was one of the first people to receive it,” she said. “I don’t think this is what should we be looking for as Professor of Poetry. I’m very much against these statements. We should be reading him and we should not meet him.”
The editors of Cherwell Newspaper also received two copies of these anonymous letters. Hand-written notes were attached, encouraging the editors to look at the photocopied pages.
The first note said, “Gini, what do we think of Hermione Lee running the campaign for this guy to come to Oxford as the Poetry Professor. Worth a piece? Sandra + Jane.” The other note read, “Derek, sent Gini a note about this as well. I really think Hermione Lee is mad to try to bring this guy in. What say you? Sandra + Jane.”
Cherwell conducted an interview with Ruth Padel on April 29. Following the interview, Emily Paddon, a doctoral student at St Antony’s college and a friend of Ruth Padel, contacted Cherwell and raised the issue of Walcott’s history.
“The only thing I did was to send an e-mail to colleagues and friends about the issue,” she commented. “I’ve been reading about this in the newspapers. I was concerned that the university has not publicised this issue. The emails were very factual–no judgment, no opinion.” Paddon condemned the smear campaign and denied any involvement.
Seth Abramson, a published poet and former staff attorney at the New Hampshire Public Defender described how a note was posted on his blog from an unknown source at Oxford University.
The note read, “We are a group of women students at Oxford University and find [Walcott’s history] shocking and insulting. We would welcome your help, in demonstrating to the University and the British public, that Walcott’s sexual harassment and blackmail of women students are not mere ‘allegations,’ as the British press assert, but a matter of record, with deeply offensive transcripts available in books and online.
“Quite the opposite of Professor Lee’s assertion, we feel that electing a proven campus sexual predator, who is on record as admitting harassment in at least two cases, would shame not honour Oxford. The post is voted for by teachers at Oxford University. We feel the English Faculty is suppressing Walcott’s record. No one in Oxford or Britain knows or believes it. We find it scandalous, almost unbelievable, that it is a woman educator who is Walcott’s chief supporter in Oxford and in public.”
The letter went on to ask the public to write e-mails to the Guardian newspaper and a press officer at Oxford University.
The note had several signatures, but Abramson later received an e-mail from one of the named persons, saying that they had not been involved with the post and asking to have their names removed.
Abramson expressed a belief that Walcott was an inadequate candidate. “If might be different–only might–if Walcott had, at a minimum, apologized profusely for his actions and sought some sort of training in the appropriate instruction of adolescents, but as near as I can tell that’s never happened.”
Walcott won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and he has also won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the WH Smith Literary Award in recent years.
In 1992, an anonymous student in a creative writing class taught by Walcott at Harvard claimed that the poet had propositioned her ten years earlier during a discussion of her work. When she refused his advances, he gave her a “C” grade.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the University’s newspaper, Walcott did not deny the student’s testimony. His teaching style was “deliberately personal and intense,” he alleged.
The Crimson published a letter by the student containing an account of the conversation. The student claimed that, after she sent the letter, Walcott was “cold and distant”, showed “no concern for my education” and “did not fully evaluate my work as he did with other students of the class.” Harvard University has officially reprimanded Walcott.
In 1995, the poet was accused of sexually harassing a student in a class he taught at Boston University. The student claimed that he had propositioned her. After she declined, he threatened to fail her and refused to produce her play. She later pressed for compensation and punitive damages.
Professor Hermione Lee, a campaigner for Derek Walcott, was disgusted by the smear campaign. “I am shocked and astonished that someone has been using these sorts of anonymous tactics,” she said. “Why are these tactics being used? It is a conceited campaign, to put things into an envelope with no name.”
“These allegations are from 25 years ago and we should have an argument in a proper manner. It’s a very complicated, ethical question and it should be properly debated.”
She added, “You might ask yourself as a student body whether you wanted Byron or Shelley as a professor of poetry, neither of whom had personal lives free from criticism.”
Lee expressed concern that the letters were sent by Walcott’s competitors. “I can only assume that they were send by Ruth Padel’s campaigners. I would like to disassociate myself from such behaviour.”
Professor Pedro Ferreira, Ruth Padel’s campaigner, disputed the claim. “I haven’t heard anything about this. I know and have heard of the book, but I haven’t heard that the book has been sent out to people.”
He added, “I know there are people who are angry about this but I completely deny Ruth Padel’s involvement with such a campaign. We have nothing to do with this and we condemn it.”
Students have expressed concern about the allegations made against Walcott. Katy Theobald, president of Oxford Women in Politics commented, “If the sexual harassment claims were separate from Walcott’s public work then these claims would be irrelevant. If he were to be elected for the post, there would be concerns that these issues would once more affect his work.”
Hannah Cusworth, Oxford University Labour Club’s Women’s Officer and a member of Women’s Campaign said, “I can’t condone sexual harassment. I just want a fantastic poet as opposed to someone who would upset people if he was elected.”
