Richard Rive
Richard Rive (1931-1989) was a writer of short-stories, essays, novels and plays.
Biography
Born Richard Moore Rive in District Six, Cape Town in 1930, where he was raised by his mother, Nancy Rive, and was schooled at St. Mark’s Primary School and Trafalgar High School. Then attended the universities of Cape Town (UCT), Columbia and Oxford, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cape Town, followed by a Masters from Columbia University and a Doctorate from Oxford.
A sportsman, non-racialist and political activist, he was head of the English department at Hewat College of Education in Cape Town and a visiting professor at several overseas universities, including Harvard.
As author he edited anthologies for the Heinemann African Writers Series and wrote three novels, including Emergency (1964) and 'Buckingham Palace', District Six (1986).
Sadly, he was murdered at his home in Cape Town in 1989.
His contribution to South African theatre, film, media and performance
While best known for his short stories and novels, he also had an impact in theatre. He adapted his short story Resurrection into an one-act play (first performed 1966), and won the BBC African Theatre Competition of 1972 with another one-act play, Make Like Slaves.
He later adapted 'Buckingham Palace', District Six into a play, originally performed by students at Hewat College in 1988, then professionally by the Baxter Theatre in 1989.
Sources
See Gosher, 1988
Shaun Viljoen. 2013. Richard Rive: A Partial Biography (Wits University Press).
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