Etienne Leroux

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Afrikaans. (August 2018) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Afrikaans Wikipedia article at [[:af:Etienne Leroux]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|af|Etienne Leroux}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Etienne Leroux" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Etienne Leroux (born Stephanus Petrus Daniël le Roux; 13 June 1922 – 30 December 1989) was an Afrikaans writer and a member of the South African Sestigers literary movement.

Early life and career[edit]

Etienne Leroux was born in Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape on 13 June 1922 as Stephanus Petrus Daniël le Roux, son of Stephanus Petrus le Roux, a South African Minister of Agriculture. He studied law at Stellenbosch University (BA, LLB) and worked for a short time at a solicitor's office in Bloemfontein. From 1946 he farmed and lived as a writer on his farm in the Koffiefontein district. Etienne was a pupil at Grey College Bloemfontein where he matriculated.

His 1968 Een vir Azazel (One for Azazel in Afrikaans) was translated into English as One for the Devil, and makes use of the Azazel myth.

He died on 30 December 1989, and was buried at the family church yard of Wamakersdrift, of which his farm formed part.

Graham Greene wrote: "His audience will be the audience that only a good writer can merit, an audience which assembles slowly in ones and twos ... the rumour spreads that here an addition will be found to the literature of our time."

Awards[edit]

• Hertzog Prize for prose for Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, 1964
• Hertzog Prize for Prose for Magersfontein, O Magersfontein!, 1979^[1] and CNA Literary Award
• CNA Literary Award for Een vir Azazel

List of works[edit]

• Die eerste trilogy (1955–59):
  • Die eerste lewe van Colet (1955)
  • Hilaria (1957)
  • Die mugu (1959)
• Die Silberstein-trilogie also known as the "Welgevonden" trilogy (1962–66):
  • Sewe dae by die Silbersteins (1962). Seven Days at the Silbersteins, trans. Charles Eglington (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964).
  • Een vir Azazel (1964). One for the Devil, trans. Charles Eglington (Houghton Mifflin, 1968).
  • Die derde oog (1966). The Third Eye, trans. Amy Starke (Houghton Mifflin, 1969).
• The "Isis" trilogy (1967–72):
  • 18-44 (1967). 18-44, trans. Cassandra Perrey (Houghton Mifflin, 1972).
  • Isis, Isis, Isis (1969)
  • Na'va (1972)
• Magersfontein, o Magersfontein! (1976). Magersfontein, O Magersfontein!, trans. Ninon Roets (Hutchinson, 1983).
• Onse Hymie (1982)

The English translations of Die Silberstein-trilogie were also published as a single volume: To a Dubious Salvation: A Trilogy of Fantastical Novels (Penguin, 1972).

Further reading[edit]

A biography of Etienne Leroux, by the respected biographer of Afrikaans writers, John Christoffel Kannemeyer, was published in July 2008.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Misterie van die alchemis. 'n Inleiding tot Etienne Leroux se negedelige romansiklus. (By Charles Malan)

• Digital Etienne Leroux Project
• Journal of Southern African Studies Paper on Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins - JSTOR
• SABC news footage of Leroux's funeral on Video on YouTube