Mona Vida de Beer

Mona Vida de Beer (1928-2001) was a journalist and writer. Born and raised Mona Vida Schwartz in Ermelo in the Transvaal. After matriculating from Pretoria Girls High, she studied librarianship at Rhodes University. Apart from writing, she enjoyed photography and art, and had a fine eye for artistic detail as seen in many of her books. She had two children, Sue and Adam, from her first marriage to SA musician Stanley 'Spike' Glasser. The family lived a cosmopolitan life in such places as the UK and France. Upon returning to South Africa they worked on the Leon Gluckman’s musical King Kong, with Mona as the publicist for the show. As Mona Glasser she wrote articles and a book about this ground breaking production (King Kong – A Venture in Theatre , 1960). She married the politician Dr Zach de Beer in 1967 and they bought an apartment in Clifton overlooking the sea. She now published as Mona de Beer. Her work later writing includes a A Vision of the Past: South Africa in Photographs (1992) and Who Did What in South Africa (1988, revised 1995).

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