Arthur Nortje Collection

University of South Africa

Arthur Kenneth Nortje was a South African poet. He was born in Oudtshoorn in 1942, emigrated to Canada in 1965, and died by his own hand in Oxford in 1970. His poems were published posthumously in the collections Dead Roots by Heinemann, and Lonely Against the Light by Rhodes University in 1973. The poems deal with his own personal alienation, his coloured identity in apartheid South Africa, and his experience of exile. The University of South Africa (Unisa) Press published Anatomy of Dark: Collected Poems of Arthur Nortje, edited by Dirk Klopper, in 2000.

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Type

Finding aids

Country

South Africa

This material is made available for educational and scholarly purposes only. It may not be downloaded, reproduced, or distributed in any format without written permission of the University of South Africa, Libray Services

Unconditional

Dates Covered

1942-1970

Language

English

Locations Discussed

Sub-Saharan Africa

Southern Africa

South Africa

Note

The Arthur Nortje Collection in the Unisa Archive consists of the following parts: Notepads A and B with diary entries and handwritten poems School diary with appointments and a poem, South End High School, Port Elizabeth, 1965 Nortje’s 352 page Oxford Journal (1965-1969) with diary entries, events, observations about his literary studies, reminiscences of South Africa, poems written in England and Canada, as well as copies of letters to his friend Maggie Lennox and others The Little Exercise Books with poems written immediately before his death in 1970 Handwritten and typescript copies of poems that Nortje gave to friends and literary acquaintances Personal and business correspondence Personal documents such as birth, school and degree certificates, passport, report of the coroner on Nortje’s death at Oxford in December 1970 Photographs of Arthur Nortje and his friends Tape recordings of interviews conducted by Mrs Hedy Davis.

This collection was sold to the Unisa Library by Hedy Davis, who obtained the material in the course of her researching the life and works of Nortje, on behalf of Mrs Cecelia Potgieter, the mother of Arthur Nortje. Unisa acquired the copyright on the collection.

This collection forms part of the UNISA Library Digital Collections