C.M. van den Heever

C.M. van den Heever (1902-1957) was an Afrikaans novelist, poet, playwright, essayist and biographer.

Biography

Born Christiaan Maurits van den Heever on 27 February 1902 in the concentration camp near Norvalspont in Cape Province, and studied literature at the University of the Orange Free State in Bloemfontein and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

He then embarked on a career as lecturer, intially at the University of the Orange Free State, and later at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He also began writing, primarily poetry, short stories and novels, becoming a prominent member of the so-called Die Dertigers (the literary movement of the thirties). Among his writings are the highly regarded novels Somer ("Summer") and Laat Vrugte (lit "Late fruit", a work that was awarded the Hertzog Prize for prose in 1942).

He passed away on 8 July 1957.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Besides the full-length published play Geloof: Drama uit die Hugenotetyd ("Faith: Drama from the time of the Hugenots", 1933), he also wrote a number of one-act plays, including Ek Kom Dadelik! (a one-act play, published in Helikon, 4(20), 1955); Tot U Welsyn ( a one-act play, published in Bulletin, 4(7):31-35. January, 1957).

A number of his plays and novels have been dramatised and filmed.

Novels filmed include Somer ("Summer") and Laat Vrugte (lit. "Late Fruit").

The central concept of his haunting poem Waar Ruwe Rotse was twice dramatised (under the titles Waar Ruwe Rotse and Kolskoot Visagie respectively.