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

Leipoldt was born in Worcester near Cape Town. His father was the parson in the Dutch Reformed Church in Clanwilliam and his grandfather was the Rhenish missionary who founded the famous Rhenish missionary in Wupperthal [1]. His mother was also the daughter of a Rhenish missionary.

Youth

Growing up in Clanwilliam, one of four children, his early education was largely at home.

Training

After being home-schooled as a child he studied medicine at the University of Cape Town and at Guy's Hospital in London. He qualified as a medical practitioner and later as a paediatrician. He travelled widely in Europe, America and the East Indies.

Career

and for a while, during the Second Boer War, he was a reporter.

en het daarna as joernalis gewerk, onder meer vir De Kolonist en Het Dagblad. Hy het ook vir menige oorsese koerant verslag gedoen oor die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, voordat hy hom in die geneeskunde bekwaam het,

Between 1902 and 1907, with funding from the botanist Harry Bolus, he studied medicine at Guy's Hospital in London and travelled in Europe, America and the East Indies. At times his health was poor. For a period of some six months during 1908, he was the personal physician of the American newspaper magnate, Joseph Pulitzer, aboard Pulitzer's yacht.[2]

Later Leipoldt's career was varied. For a period he was a school doctor in London before becoming the Medical Inspector of Schools[3] in the Transvaal and then in the Cape Province. He returned to journalism for a while (1923) but finally settled down as a paediatrician in Cape Town in 1925. He never married.

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 [2]

Wikipedia [3]

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