Alan Paton
Paton, Alan - pāˈtən, 1903–88, South African novelist. A devoted leader in the struggle to end the oppression of the South African blacks, he served (1935–47) as principal of the Diepkloof Reformatory (near Johannesburg) for delinquent boys, where he instituted many reforms. After the publication of his first novel, Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), he became Read More...
Paton, Alan - pāˈtən, 1903–88, South African novelist. A devoted leader in the struggle to end the oppression of the South African blacks, he served (1935–47) as principal of the Diepkloof Reformatory (near Johannesburg) for delinquent boys, where he instituted many reforms. After the publication of his first novel, Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), he became active in South African political affairs. He helped form the Liberal Association of South Africa, which later emerged as a political party. Paton's fiction, written with simplicity and compassion, reflects the deep conflicts that continue to exist in South Africa today. His second novel, Too Late the Phalarope, appeared in 1953, and Tales from a Troubled Land, a collection of short stories, in 1961. Among his other works are South Africa in Transition (1956); Hope for South Africa (1958); The Long View (1968), a volume of essays; and For You Departed (1969), a memoir and tribute to his wife. Maxwell Anderson's play Lost in the Stars (1948) was based on Cry, the Beloved Country. See biography by P. F. Alexander (1995). The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved. |
Alan Paton
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Best remembered as the author of Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton's reputation extends beyond the fields of fiction and literature to his roles as a teacher, prison reformer, and politician. In this new biography, Peter Alexander sets out to explore not only the public figure, but also the private man about whom much less is known.
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A Book of South African Verse ("Sanna" begins on p. 67, "The Discardment" begins on p. 68, "Samuel" begins on p. 69, and "To a Small Boy Who Died at Diepkloof Reformatory" begins on p. 71)
by Guy Butler. 228 pgs.
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Southern African Literatures ("Novels against Apartheid: Abrahams, Paton" begins on p. 228)
by Michael Chapman. 536 pgs.
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Strategies of Transformation toward a Multicultural Society: Fulfilling the Story of Democracy (Discussion of Alan Paton begins on p. 59)
by David T. Abalos. 194 pgs.
How can the culturally diverse communities of America live justly and fruitfully together? Not by assimilation into the dominant culture -- nor by fighting for the freedom to pursue our own self-interest at the cost of our repressing both the wounds and the promising potential of our own cultural roots. This book offers a theory and practice of transformation that shows, especially through literature, education, and politics, how we can create a multicultural society that liberates our being as a fulfillment of the story of democracy. Perhaps for the first time in American history we are seeing the personal, political, historical, and sacred faces of women, people of color, and all ethnic groups as they tell their stories. It is this emerging scholarship that constitutes the new multicultural and feminine face of the story of democracy.