fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Donald Alasdair Calum Maclennan (9 December 1929 – 9 February 2009) was a South African poet, critic, playwright and English professor.

He published a number of plays, short stories, collections of poems and scholarly works.

Born on 9 December 1929, in London, England, Maclennan came to South Africa as a child in 1938. He was educated at Witwatersrand University and Edinburgh University.[1]

Maclennan's academic career included lecturing at Wits University and the University of Cape Town.[2] He taught in both South Africa and the United States.[3] He began teaching at Rhodes University in 1966, teaching English there for more than 40 years,[2] although he officially retired in 1994. In later years, he continued to teach at the university, giving weekly seminars for another decade.[4]

In his final years, he self-published a number of works of poetry.[4] In his last decade, Maclennan had motor-neuron disease. He suffered a stroke in January 2009, although his mind was not affected by it. He died on 9 February 2009, in Port Elizabeth.[2]

Bibliography

Years link to corresponding "[year] in poetry" article for poetry; for literature, to corresponding "[year] in literature" article:

Poetry

• 1971: In Memoriam Oskar Wolberheim, A.A. Balkema, combining Maclennan's poetry and the music of Norbert Nowotny[1]
• 1977: Life Songs, Bateleur Press[1]
• 1983: Reckonings,[1] New Africa Books, ISBN 978-0-908396-95-5[5]
• 1988: Collecting Darkness, Justified Press, ISBN 978-0-9474510-3-5[1]
• 1992: Letters: New Poems, Carrefour Press, ISBN 978-0-9583178-7-0[6]
• 1995: The Poetry Lesson: New Poems[1] Snailpress, ISBN 978-1-874923-25-1[7]
• 1997: Solstice: Poems, ISBN 978-1-874923-40-4,[8] winner of South Africa's Sanlam Literary Award for 1997[1]
• 1998: Of Women and Some Men[1] with George Coutouvidis, Firfield Poetry Press, ISBN 978-1-875058-16-7[9]
• 2001:
  • Notes from a Rhenish Mission,[1] Firfield Press, ISBN 978-1-875058-17-4[10]
  • A Brief History of Madness in the Eastern Cape, with drawings by Siddis Firfield,[1] Firfield Press, ISBN 978-1-875058-17-4[1]
• Bateleur Poets, ISBN 978-0-620-02281-1[11]
• 2002: Rock paintings at Salem, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2002: The Road to Kromdraai,[1] Publisher Snailpress, ISBN 978-1-874923-63-3[12]
• 2003: The Dinner Party, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2003: A Letter to William Blake, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2003: Under Compassberg, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2004: Excavations,[1] self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2005: Reading the Signs, Carapace
• 2006: The necessary salt, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2006: Selected Poems, Quartz Press
• 2007: The owl of Minerva, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2008: Through a Glass Darkly, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2010: Dress Rehearsal, self-published, Rhodes University GSU

Other works

• An Enquiry into the Voyage of the Santiago, a play[4]
• Job Mava, a play, written and performed in 1972/3 by The Ikhwezi Players, published 1981/2[4]
• My Childhood, adaptation of Maxim Gorky's play, performed in 1975 by The Ikhwezi Players[4]
• 2004: Editor, with Malcolm Hacksley, A Ruthless Fidelity: Collected Poems of Douglas Livingstone,[1] publisher: Ad Donker, ISBN 978-0-86852-232-6[13]
• Olive Schreiner and After: Essays on Southern African Literature in Honour of Guy Butler[1] Publisher: D. Philip, ISBN 978-0-908396-92-4[14]
• Sarah Christie, Don Maclennan, Geoffrey Hutchings, Perspectives on South African Fiction, Publisher Ad. Donker, ISBN 978-0-949937-74-2[15]

Notes

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