Bertha Goudvis

(1876-1966) Hotelier, journalist, playwright and novelist. (The first name is sometimes wrongly written Berthe Goudvis in some sources)

Biography

Born Bertha Cinamon in Barrow-in-Furness in England and came to South Africa from in 1881.She spent her youth trekking by ox-wagon across the country from one small mining town to another. Lived and worked in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)and Mozambique as a hotelier and journalist, among both English and Afrikaans communities. Living among both English and Afrikaans communities but belonging to neither because she was Jewish, Bertha was in a unique position to record early colonial attitudes. She was in touch with many of the people who feature in South Africa’s history books, including Rhodes, Lobengula, Kruger and Louis Botha.

As journalist she was, amongst others, a correspondent for The Natal Mercury and a journalist for Johannesburg’s The Star. Published a bestselling novel, Little Eden in 1949 and a collection of her short stories The Mistress of Mooiplaas in 1956. In 2011 her autobiography (South African Odyssey, The autobiography of Bertha Goudvis) was published by Picador, (Pan Macmillan, SA), edited by Marcia Leveson.

Contribution to South African theatre

Wrote a number of one-act plays, including the extremely popular A Husband for Rachel (first performed 1917) and The Way the Money Goes. They first appeared (with The Sergeant-in-Charge and Patriots) in the collection The Way the Money Goes and other plays (1925) and were both widely published afterwards. The Aliens followed, published 1936. Also wrote the libretto for a musical, Sunshine Land. In the 1970’s the SABC also broadcast a TV version of A Husband for Rachel.

GOUDVIS, Bertha (Berthe*?). (1876-1966) Hotelier, journalist, playwright and novelist. Born in Barrow-in-Furness in England and came to South Africa from in 1881. Lived and worked in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)and Mozambique as a hotelier and journalist. Wrote a number of one-act plays, including the extremely popular A Husband for Rachel (first performed 1917) and The Way the Money Goes. They first appeared (with The Sergeant-in-Charge and Patriots) in the collection The Way the Money Goes and other plays (1925) and were both widely published afterwards. The Aliens followed, published 1936. Also published a novel - Little Eden (1949) and a collection of short fiction (The Mistress of Mooiplaas and Other Stories - 1956). In the 1970’s the SABC also broadcast a TV version of A Husband for Rachel. Born in England in 1876, Bertha came with her family to South Africa at the age of five. She spent her youth trekking by ox-wagon across the country from one small mining town to another. Living among both English and Afrikaans communities but belonging to neither because she was Jewish, Bertha was in a unique position to record early colonial attitudes. She was in touch with many of the people who feature in South Africa’s history books, including Rhodes, Lobengula, Kruger and Louis Botha.

Bertha enjoyed a long career of journalism and creative writing, as a correspondent for The Natal Mercury, a journalist for Johannesburg’s The Star and having published a bestselling novel, Little Eden in 1949 and her short stories The Mistress of Mooiplaas in 1956. Bertha also wrote the libretto for a musical, Sunshine Land, and several plays.

South African Odyssey is the story of a revolutionary-for-her-times writer who eloquently brings to life a pre-modern South African landscape etched with the discovery of gold.

See Goudvis, 2011

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Sources

See Goudvis, 2011

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

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