A special publication of "On the Canvas of the World", a book which brings together material from two issues of the New World Quarterly first published in 1966 to mark the independence of Barbados, and Guyana, has been released.

As part of the activities to mark the year-long 25th anniversary of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the book which features the writings of some of the Region's most notable literary exponents, is now available in bookstores, and will shortly be distributed to secondary schools throughout the Region.

Edited by West Indian novelist, George Lamming, the almost 300-page edition, is thought-stimulating as it focuses on aspects of development since the New World initiatives of the 60s. In the foreword, intellectual, Lloyd Best of Trinidad and Tobago, notes that retrieving this work of the past in its current format "provides us a benchmark to evolving sensibility, much the same as the stream of art and thought, fruit of the creative tradition." While he mentions that no answer has been attempted to the way the Region has responded to decades of experience, and what has been done during the past decades, he observed "we muse on some of the more arcane (hidden) aspects of the interpretation."

The single cover "On the Canvas of the World", was born out of the two New World quarterlies which were published as separate editions in May, 1966 in Guyana, and in November of the same year in Barbados. Both editions were edited by Lamming who was assisted by the late Martin Carter of Guyana, and Edward Baugh in the case of the Barbados edition.

The book was published by the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of the West Indies for the CARICOM Secretariat, and was released in March 1999.