Alan Stewart Paton, a South African author and anti-apartheid activist, was born in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu Natal on 11 January 1903 and passed away on 12 April 1988.
Paton studied at the University of Natal after which he taught at the Ixopo High School for White students. Here he fell in love with Dorrie Francis Lusted, a married woman. When Lusted’s husband died in 1928 they married and moved to Pietermaritzburg, where he continued teaching. The couple had two sons, but Dorrie died of emphysema in 1969. Paton published a book, Kontakion for you Departed, about their years together, in 1969. He married his secretary, Anne Hopkins, that year.
In 1935 Paton was appointed Principal of Diepkloof Reformatory for Young Offenders. This experience had a significant impact on his political development and he introduced several progressive reforms. He remained in the post for 13 years. During the 1940’s he travelled to Sweden, Norway and North America to study prisons and reformatories.
Paton began writing his first, and arguably most famous, novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, in 1946 in Trondheim, Norway. He completed the book on Christmas Eve of the same year in San Francisco. It was published in 1948 and was considered alternatively as revolutionary or sentimental by many White South Africans. The book became a massive success and by 1988 had sold more than 15 million copies internationally. It has also spurred two films, one made in 1951 and another in 1995, and has been credited with stimulating awareness of apartheid abroad.
After completing Cry, the Beloved Country Paton resigned from his post in Diepkloof and moved to the KwaZulu Natal coast to dedicate himself fully to writing. He was very prolific and published 19 books between 1948 and 1989.
Paton continued to write and in 1960, after returning from an award ceremony for the American Freedom Award, his passport was confiscated. It was returned only a decade later.
In April 1988 Paton was diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the throat. He died in Durban on 12 April 1988, continuing to write until his death.
Sources:
- De Beer, M. (1995). Who Did What in South Africa,Jeppestown: AD Donker Publishers.
- London Times Obituaries, 13 April 1988.
- Sunday Times, 10 April 1988.
- Alan (Stewart) Paton (1903-1988)
- Alan Paton (1903-1988). South Africa
