C. Louis Leipoldt

Christian Frederik Louis Leipoldt, usually referred to as C. Louis Leipoldt, (1880-1947) was a South African poet, playwright, paediatrician, botanist, journalist, novelist, cook and connoisseur of food and wine. Apart from poetry, he wrote novels, plays, stories, children's books, cookbooks and a travel diary. He was awarded the Hertzog Prize for Afrikaans Drama in 1944.

Biography

Career

Born in Clanwilliam, he trained as a medical doctor at the Universities of Cape Town and Guy's Hospital , London, and returned to practice in **. Wrote in Dutch, Afrikaans and English. His published poems include the collections Oom Gert Vertel ("Uncle Gert Narrates" - 1911) and Geseënde Skaduwees ("Blessed Shadows" - 1949) and the epic English poem The Ballad of Dick King (1949). *** His most important and influential play was Die Hamer van die Hekse ("The Hammer of the Witches"), a short play written in response to a performance of * Perhaps The Rosary, by ***. A play about ***. Produced by Leonard Rayne at the Standard Theatre and the ** theatre in Cape Town??in 19**???. A THOUGHT*] ***. He later revised and published it as Die Heks ("The Witch"), and it was then taken up by Paul de Groot for his first/second??* professional production in 1925. With that Afrikaans theatre was seen as having come of age artistically and the play has been produced often since and was for very many years a standard prescribed work for schools. A new version of the play (Die Hamer van die Hekse), based on the original text, was done by André P. Brink in 198* and performed by PACT. Other plays include Die Vergissing ("The misinterpretation"), Die Swart Gevaar (The black danger"), Die Laaste Aand ("The last night"), Die Lang Nag???**. His autobiography (Bushveld Doctor) was published in 1935 by **), while a biography by John Kannemeyer was published by Tafelberg?** in 2001*? Stephen Gray - who rescued Leipoldt's English novel (Stormwrack*?) and had it published - has also written on Leipoldt in English. [TH]

Awards, etc

Awarded the 1944 Hertzog Prize for Afrikaans Drama for Die Heks and Die Laaste Aand.

Sources

Cederberg Publishers [1]

Wikipedia [2]

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