Herman Charles Bosman

Craig Hugh MacKenzie (University of Johannesburg)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 7.2.3.03: South Africa and other Southern Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester)

Dates

Born 3 Feb 1905
Died 14 Oct 1951
Activity 1925-1951

Places

Born in South Africa
Active in South Africa

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Poet
Story-writer

Resources

Bosman's Works

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The name Herman Charles Bosman is inextricably tied to the region he made famous–the Groot Marico district, a remote rural region of the former Western Transvaal (now North West Province) in South Africa–and to the larger-than-life character Oom Schalk Lourens. This rustic sage, pipe in hand and a trick or two up his sleeve, beguilingly narrates some of the funniest and yet most moving stories in the entire canon of South African literature.

As novelist, poet, and critic, but especially as short-story writer, Bosman holds a unique place in the field of South African literature in English. He ranks in stature alongside Olive Schreiner, Pauline Smith, Alan Paton and Nadine Gordimer, and yet, unlike these writers, he is little known outside the country of his birth. An explanation for

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2306 words

Citation: MacKenzie, Craig Hugh. "Herman Charles Bosman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 September 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=492, accessed 25 November 2024.]