H.W.D. Manson
H.W.D. Manson (1926-1969) was a highly regarded South African playwright, poet academic.
Fondly referred to as "Cake" Manson by friends.
Contents
Biography
Born Harley William Daniel Manson Tanganyika in 1926, he was educated in England, Grahamstown and at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, but spent the maturest and best years of his short life as a lecturer in Pietermaritzburg.
At the age of seventeen he joined the army, to serve in the Natal Carbineers. During the war he began writing poetry, but on his return took up playwriting.
He held brief temporary lectureships in English for a number of years, interspersed with periods of playwriting, before being appointed to the permanent staff of the University of Natal, at Pietermaritzburg.
Sadly, Manson was killed in a crash on 29th May, 1969 at the age of 43.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Notable for his verse plays, though none of them are set in South Africa, except possibly Pat Mulholland's Day, Manson's work led to him be considered one of the premier English playwrights of his time in the country, alongside people like Athol Fugard, James Ambrose Brown and Guy Butler. Unlike Fugard in particular, his star has faded somewhat over the years in the face of the anti-Apartheid resistance movement, the 1976 uprising and the evolution of a powerful theatre of protest in the country.
The plays have all been published, and were produced or broadcast, mostly in South Africa, but also in Great Britain and Canada, most of them during his lifetime.
In his short life he was the author of The Festival (published by Balkema); The Noose-Knot Ballad (Human and Rousseau); The Magnolia Tree (Nasionale Boekhandel); Pat Mulholland's Day (Nasionale Boekhandel); Captain Smith (Human and Rousseau); The Green Knight (Human and Rousseau) and Potluck, The Counsellors, The Fight at Finnsburg and Magnus.
Sources
C. van Heyningen. 1971. "H.W.D. Manson: Poet and Playwright, and his connections with Natal" In Natalia, 01 (1971) pp. 23-25[1]
Teater SA, 1(4), 1969.
Theoria, (35), October 1970.
Review by T.J. Couzens English Studies in Africa, 15(2), 9 September 1972.
Standpunte, 11(1), August/September, 1956: pp. 12-34.
Standpunte, 24(1), p. 26.
Various entries in the NELM catalogue.
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