Noël Compton Bacchus

Noel Compton Bacchus was born in British Guiana, a small former colony in South America. At 20 years of age, he came to the United States to attend Grinnell College in Iowa. He completed a B.A.there and, subsequently an M.A. and PhD in International Affairs at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

He remembers flying for the first time, entering the United States in San Juan, Puerto Rico, continuing to New York then Chicago and boarding the Rock Island Line Express for Iowa. His arrival at Grinnell, Iowa, he will never forget.

"It was just dusk as the Rock Island Line express drew in to the small, tranquil station of Grinnell, Iowa. Intimations of Fall - the leaves red and gold, a chill in the air that late October afternoon - were everywhere.

Stepping down at the empty station - a young man, brown-skinned, of slight stature, I affected a poised and confident posture beneath the gaze of curious passengers and the barely disguised curiosity of the African American porter.

In truth, I felt as alien as a space traveler on a distant planet. The long whistle and the cry of: All Aboard, as the train, my refuge for several hours, began to move slowly away, filled me with a desperate desire to return home.

I had lived all my short life until a week earlier in a tropical country where the temperature rarely fell below 70 degrees. I had travelled thousands of miles to a college campus that in a few weeks would be windswept, cold and covered with snow. I was arriving six weeks after the semester had started. I had no idea how I would get to the campus, who I needed to see there, whether accomodations had been prepared or where my next meal would be eaten."

Two years of travel in Africa researching a doctoral thesis, providing reports on business conditions to Time-Life International led to an International division job in New York with Time Inc. and a subsequent career in International book publishing.

Married with two sons, he lives in New York City. He is the author of two books:

Guyana Farewell - A memoir of childhood

Where Cries the KisKaDee - a mystery