Alan Paton (1903-1988). South Africa.

Alan Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg in Natal in 1903. His father was James Paton, a Scot who had emigrated to South Africa in 1895. His mother was Eunice Warder James Paton, the daughter of English immigrants. His father was a deeply religious Christian and a strict authoritarian. His disciplinary practices led Alan Paton to despise and openly oppose all forms of authoritarianism. His father's influence was not exclusively negative; he also taught Alan to love books and nature, two passions which figure prominently in his work.

His most famous and most acclaimed work is Cry, the Beloved Country (1948). By the time Paton had died in 1988, it had sold over 15 million copies. It has been made into two films, in 1951 and again in 1995. It is the story of a black Anglican priest from Ixopo, Stephen Kumalo, who goes to Johannesburg to search for his son and sister. When he arrives, he discovers that his sister has become a prostitute, and that his son has murdered the son of a white Ixopo farmer. Stephen Kumalo returns to Ixopo with his daughter-in-law, who is pregnant, and his sister's son, whom she leaves with Stephen and his daughter-in-law. Gertrude, his sister, never returns to the village. He eventually reconciles with the murdered man's father, who decides to actively help the black community.

After writing Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton resigned from his job as the director of the Diepkloof reformatory, and dedicated himself to writing. He wrote another novel, Too Late the Phalarope (1953), in 1951. It received less critical acclaim than the first novel, in part because it is more polished and less moving than the earlier work. In 1953, Paton formed the South African Liberal Party, which was disbanded in 1968, when interracial parties were deemed illegal in South Africa. He continued to write until his death, although none of his work was judged as good as his 1948 novel. (KJ)

Cry, the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in Desolation. New York: Scribners, 1948.
Too Late the Phalarope. New York: Scribners, 1953.
Towards the Mountain. New York: Scribners, 1980.
Alexander, Peter F. Alan Paton: A Biography. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1994.

[Thanks go to Keven Daughtry for his clarification of the plot summary above. DR]

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