Anna M. Louw (31 December 191312 June 2003) was a South African author. She was born in Calvinia in a so-called "Nagmaalhuis" (Sunday House, for an outlying family attending church). Her father was a sheep farmer near Calvinia on the farm Soetwater and her mother was a teacher on a farm school in the district. Louw shares family ties with South African authors NP van Wyk Louw,

WEG Louw William Ewart Gladstone Louw (31 May 1913 in Sutherland, Northern Cape, Sutherland, formerly Cape Province, now Northern Cape Province in South Africa – 24 April 1980 in Stellenbosch, Western Cape Province, South Africa), was an Afrikaner poet a ...

, George Louw, Peter Louw, Rona Rupert, Charles Fryer, Willem Steenkamp, Johnita le Roux, Nico Louw and Pieter Strauss. Her undergraduate studies included English, Afrikaans, Dutch, German, French, Psychology and Ethics at the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

and postgraduate studies were concluded at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. Louw married twice. Her children Wendy, Nicholas and Elizabeth were born during her marriage with Lewis Hurst and the twin Christina and Editha were born during her marriage with Gerhard Bassel. In 1975 Anna accepted her nomination as a member of the Cape committee of the Council on Publications but after the banning of Etienne Leroux's novel ''Magersfontein, o Magersfontein!'' in 1977, she resigned as member because she felt anguish about not being able to stop the banning of the publication. In a discussion with Gary Bowes Taylor in ''The Star'' newspaper (6 December 1977) she said: "We have so few works of a really high standard that it breaks one’s heart when one of them is put out of circulation. The directorate were with us all the way in getting Magersfontein through. And then complaints reached the Minister from people who, judging by the samples of their reading matter as given to the Press, read only unknown and slight Afrikaans novels, teenage romance, the most rudimentary fiction. Magersfontein is a closed book, it’s not easily accessible, it’s not easy to understand what Leroux has to say. It moves on a symbolic, satiric, ironic level. (…) Differences of opinion on a book are bound to arise, all the more need for experts to decide on literary matters. What do you do in a so-called democratic society? It is a badly constructed law and it should be completely revised. It is not workable now – there is too much power in the hands of certain people." She also resigned in 1982 from the panel of literary experts of the Directorate of Publications. ''Kroniek van Perdepoort'' was translated into Dutch by Rob van der Veer. Anna M. Louw died on 12 June 2003 in her apartment in Rondebosch, Cape Town.

Awards

She won the

Olive Schreiner Prize The Olive Schreiner Prize has been awarded annually since 1961 to emerging writers in the field of drama, prose, or poetry. It is named after Olive Schreiner, the South African author and activist. It rewards promising novice work, by writers who ...

in 1964 and the

Hertzog Prize The Hertzog Prize (or Hertzogprys) is an annual award given to Afrikaans writers by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for the Sciences and Art), formerly the South African Academy for Language, Literature a ...

for ''Kroniek van Perdepoort'' in 1975. Also received the Scheepers Prize for Youth literature 1968, WA Hofmeyr Prize 1971, CNA Prize 1975 and again the WA Hofmeyr Prize in 1977.

Bibliography

*''Die onverdeelde uur'', 1956 *''Die koms van die komeet'', 1957 *''Agter my 'n Albatros'', ('n reisjoenaal) 1959 *''Die voortreflike familie Smit'', 1962 *''Twenty Days That Autumn; 21st March – 9th April 1960; a novel'', 1963 *''Die banneling: die lyfwag'', 1964 *''Oom Kolie gee raad'', (drie dramas) 1965 *''Díe wat met die fluite loop'', 1967 *''Die groot gryse'', 1968 *''Gesëende dag'', 1969 *''Kroniek van Perdepoort'', 1975 *''Die derde tempel'', 1978 *''Op die rug van die tier'', 1981 *''Die loop van die rivier'', 1986 *''Wolftyd'', 1991 *''Die donker kind'', 1996 *''Vos'', 1999

External links

About Louw's work on a panel of literary experts. * http://www.volkskrant.nl/archief/anna-louw~a3605553/ * http://8weekly.nl/recensie/boeken/anna-louw-kroniek-van-perdepoort-de-val-van-zuid-afrika/ * http://www.vanoorschot.nl/amorrien/9822-louw-anna.html * http://www.litnet.co.za/anna-m-louw-1913-2003/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Louw, Anna M. Afrikaner people South African women novelists 1913 births 2003 deaths 20th-century South African novelists 20th-century women writers

Awards

Bibliography

See also

External links