Dennis Mahabir Collection

Dennis Jules Mahabir was born in Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, in April 1920. He was the son of Jules Mahabir, the first Indo-Trinidadian magistrate and Minnie Mahabir, founders of the Minerva Club and patrons of the Minerva Review, an early Indian literary magazine in Trinidad. Dennis Mahabir was the editor of the Spectator and associate editor of the Observer, two Indian literary magazines in Trinidad. He served as Mayor of Port-of-Spain, 1957-1960. He was also the author of the novel, The Cutlass is not for Killing (1970). He died in 1992.

The collection consists mainly of periodicals, including almost complete runs of the Spectator, Observer and Minerva Review and a few issues each of the Indian, Sentinel and Trinidad Presbyterian. It also includes the manuscript of his novel, a compilation of selected essays by Mahabir and a copy of the Report on the Carnival Riots (1881). There is, too, a copy of a novel entitled, Frustrated Love, which was printed "for Mrs. M. Mahabir".