Alan Paton

Biography

Home Page Alan Paton was a South African writer and a social reformer, he was born in Pietermaritzburg, and

Novelists educated at the University of Natal. As a keen interest in the social and racial problems in South

Alan Paton Africa. From 1935 to 1948 Paton was principle of the Diepkloof Reformatory for delinquent boys

Nadine Gordimer near Johannesburg. For Paton’s first novel, Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), he received great

Bessie Head critical and popular acclaim which is distinguished for its compassionate treatment of those caught

Poets up in the racial conflicts of South Africa. The work was made into an opera with music by the

Short Story Writers German-American composer ‘Kurt Well’ and, under the original title, into a film (1952). Paton’s

Playwrights second novel, Too Late the Phalarope (1953) and his later novel, Ah, But Your Land Beautiful

References (1982), also deal with racial tensions in South African society. is His outspoken opposition of

apartheid led to confiscation of his passport between 1960 and 1970. Paton was a founder and

president of the Liberal party of South Africa until 1968.

Works

Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) (Click here to see a review)

Too Late the Phalarope (1953)

Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful (1982)

The Land and People of South Africa (1955)

The Long View (1968)

Lost in the Stars (1950)

South Africa in Transition (1956)

Debbie Go Home (1960)

Instrument of Thy Peace (1968)

Knocking on the Door (1975)

Towards the Mountain (1980)