Herman Charles Bosman
Encyclopedia
Herman Charles Bosman is the South Africa
n writer
widely regarded as South Africa's greatest short story writer. He studied the works of Edgar Alan Poe and Mark Twain, and developed a style emphasizing the use of irony. His English-language works utilize primarily Afrikaner characters and point to the many contradictions of Afrikaner society in the first half of the twentieth century.
The poet Roy Campbell
called him "the only literary genius that South Africa has produced,". Campbell, who died in 1951, could not have foreseen the emergence of such seminal writers as Andre Brink
and J.M. Coetzee and did not include writers born in South African such as J. R. R. Tolkien
(who returned to England at the age of 3) for whom a South Africa upbringing and society was not inimical to their work.
, near Cape Town
to an Afrikaner family, although he was raised with English as well as Afrikaans. While Bosman was still young, his family moved to Johannesburg
where he went to school at Jeppe High School for Boys
in Kensington
. He was a contributor to the school magazine. When Bosman was sixteen, he started writing short stories for the national Sunday newspaper (the Sunday Times). He attended the University of the Witwatersrand
submitting various pieces to students' literary competitions.
Upon graduating, he accepted a teaching position in the Groot Marico district, in an Afrikaans language school. The area and the people inspired him and provided the background for all his best known short stories; the Oom Schalk Lourens series and the Voorkamer sketches. The Oom Schalk Lourens series features an older character with that name. The Voorkamer series are similarly all set in the Marico region.
During the school holidays in 1926, he returned to visit his family in Johannesburg. During an argument, he fired a rifle at his stepbrother and killed him.
Bosman was sentenced to death and moved to Death row
at the Pretoria
Central Prison. He was reprieved and sentenced to ten years with hard labour. In 1930, he was released on parole
after serving half his sentence. His experiences formed the basis for his semi-autobiographical book, Cold Stone Jug.
He then started his own printing press company and was part of a literary set in Johannesburg, associating with poet
s, journalists and writers, including Aegidius Jean Blignaut. Needing a break, he then toured overseas for nine years, spending most of his time in London
. The short stories that he wrote during this period formed the basis for another of his best-known books, Mafeking Road.
At the start of the Second World War, he returned to South Africa and worked as a journalist. He found the time to translate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
into Afrikaans.
He lamented the fact that Johannesburg never respected its heritage; writing in The Standard Theatre "They will pull down the Standard Theatre like they have pulled down all the old buildings, theatres, gin-palaces, dosshouses, temples, shops, arcades, cafes and joints that were intimately associated with the mining-camp days of Johannesburg. Because I know Johannesburg. And I am satisfied that there is no other city in the world that is so anxious to shake off the memories of its early origins."
He married Ella Manson, and the couple were renowned for their bohemian
lifestyle and parties. His parties ended well after midnight with much witty conversation. After a housewarming party
he was taken ill with severe chest pains and was taken to Edenvale
Hospital. On admission he was asked, "Place of birth?" He replied, "Born Kuilsrivier - Died Edenvale Hospital." He was discharged and collapsed at home a few hours later. He died as he was being rushed to hospital. He is buried in Westpark Cemetery in Westdene, with a triangular headstone that reads "Die Skrywer, The Writer, Herman Charles Bosman, b 3.2.1905, d 14.10.1951 ."
After his death, the rights to his works were auctioned, and purchased by his last wife. Upon her death, those rights were passed to her son, who retains those rights.
Only three of his books were published during his lifetime; Mafeking Road published by Dassie, and Jacaranda in the Night and Cold Stone Jug published by APB.
His biography was written several times by Valerie Rosenberg. The first was called Sunflower to the sun ISBN 0-7981-1228-X (Human & Rousseau, 1976), followed by Herman Charles Bosman, a Pictorial Biography ISBN 0-628-02148-8 (Perskor, 1981) and most recently by Herman Charles Bosman: Between the Lines ISBN 1-77007-163-6 (Struik, 2005). The last of these contains much new research and deals in detail with aspects of Bosman's life and parentage that in the first were considered to be taboo.
Because many of his stories were originally published in long-forgotten magazines and journals, there are a number of anthologies
by different collators each containing a different selection. His original books have also been published many times by different publishers.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
widely regarded as South Africa's greatest short story writer. He studied the works of Edgar Alan Poe and Mark Twain, and developed a style emphasizing the use of irony. His English-language works utilize primarily Afrikaner characters and point to the many contradictions of Afrikaner society in the first half of the twentieth century.
The poet Roy Campbell
Roy Campbell (poet)
Ignatius Royston Dunnachie Campbell, better known as Roy Campbell, was an Anglo-African poet and satirist. He was considered by T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and Edith Sitwell to have been one of the best poets of the period between the First and Second World Wars...
called him "the only literary genius that South Africa has produced,". Campbell, who died in 1951, could not have foreseen the emergence of such seminal writers as Andre Brink
André Brink
André Philippus Brink, OIS, is a South African novelist. He writes in Afrikaans and English and is a Professor of English at the University of Cape Town....
and J.M. Coetzee and did not include writers born in South African such as J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
(who returned to England at the age of 3) for whom a South Africa upbringing and society was not inimical to their work.
Life
Bosman was born at KuilsrivierKuils River
Kuils River is a town in the Western Cape province, South Africa. It is a level 2 administrative region, and is close to Cape Town's wine routes. It is located near the intersection of the M12 and the R102....
, near Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
to an Afrikaner family, although he was raised with English as well as Afrikaans. While Bosman was still young, his family moved to Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
where he went to school at Jeppe High School for Boys
Jeppe High School for Boys
Jeppe High School for Boys is a public secondary school is located in Kensington, a suburb of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, one of the 23 Milner Schools....
in Kensington
Kensington, Gauteng
Kensington is a hilly suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was established in 1897 by Max Langermann...
. He was a contributor to the school magazine. When Bosman was sixteen, he started writing short stories for the national Sunday newspaper (the Sunday Times). He attended the University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
submitting various pieces to students' literary competitions.
Upon graduating, he accepted a teaching position in the Groot Marico district, in an Afrikaans language school. The area and the people inspired him and provided the background for all his best known short stories; the Oom Schalk Lourens series and the Voorkamer sketches. The Oom Schalk Lourens series features an older character with that name. The Voorkamer series are similarly all set in the Marico region.
During the school holidays in 1926, he returned to visit his family in Johannesburg. During an argument, he fired a rifle at his stepbrother and killed him.
Bosman was sentenced to death and moved to Death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
at the Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
Central Prison. He was reprieved and sentenced to ten years with hard labour. In 1930, he was released on parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
after serving half his sentence. His experiences formed the basis for his semi-autobiographical book, Cold Stone Jug.
He then started his own printing press company and was part of a literary set in Johannesburg, associating with poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
s, journalists and writers, including Aegidius Jean Blignaut. Needing a break, he then toured overseas for nine years, spending most of his time in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The short stories that he wrote during this period formed the basis for another of his best-known books, Mafeking Road.
At the start of the Second World War, he returned to South Africa and worked as a journalist. He found the time to translate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám , a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer...
into Afrikaans.
He lamented the fact that Johannesburg never respected its heritage; writing in The Standard Theatre "They will pull down the Standard Theatre like they have pulled down all the old buildings, theatres, gin-palaces, dosshouses, temples, shops, arcades, cafes and joints that were intimately associated with the mining-camp days of Johannesburg. Because I know Johannesburg. And I am satisfied that there is no other city in the world that is so anxious to shake off the memories of its early origins."
He married Ella Manson, and the couple were renowned for their bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
lifestyle and parties. His parties ended well after midnight with much witty conversation. After a housewarming party
Housewarming party
A housewarming party is a party held within approximately 90 days of moving into a new residence. It is an occasion for the hosts to present their new home to their friends, and for friends to give gifts to furnish the new home...
he was taken ill with severe chest pains and was taken to Edenvale
Edenvale, Gauteng
Edenvale is a town on the East Rand in Gauteng, South Africa. It started out in 1903, after the Anglo Boer War as a small settlement named Rietfontein which sprung up around the Rietfontein Gold Mine. It was made a municipality in 1942. It was initially populated by Cornish mineworkers. Modern...
Hospital. On admission he was asked, "Place of birth?" He replied, "Born Kuilsrivier - Died Edenvale Hospital." He was discharged and collapsed at home a few hours later. He died as he was being rushed to hospital. He is buried in Westpark Cemetery in Westdene, with a triangular headstone that reads "Die Skrywer, The Writer, Herman Charles Bosman, b 3.2.1905, d 14.10.1951 ."
After his death, the rights to his works were auctioned, and purchased by his last wife. Upon her death, those rights were passed to her son, who retains those rights.
Only three of his books were published during his lifetime; Mafeking Road published by Dassie, and Jacaranda in the Night and Cold Stone Jug published by APB.
His biography was written several times by Valerie Rosenberg. The first was called Sunflower to the sun ISBN 0-7981-1228-X (Human & Rousseau, 1976), followed by Herman Charles Bosman, a Pictorial Biography ISBN 0-628-02148-8 (Perskor, 1981) and most recently by Herman Charles Bosman: Between the Lines ISBN 1-77007-163-6 (Struik, 2005). The last of these contains much new research and deals in detail with aspects of Bosman's life and parentage that in the first were considered to be taboo.
Because many of his stories were originally published in long-forgotten magazines and journals, there are a number of anthologies
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
by different collators each containing a different selection. His original books have also been published many times by different publishers.
Books
- Some of the ISBNs and publishers below may not be for the original edition.
- Mafeking Road & Other Stories (1947) ISBN 0-7981-3902-1 Human & Rousseau' ISBN 978-0-9793330-6-4 Archipelago Books (2008)
- Rubaijat van Omar Khajjam (1948) Colin Reed-McDonald
- Cold Stone Jug (1949) ISBN 0-7981-3981-1 Human & Rousseau
- Veld-trails and pavements (1949) with Carel Bredell Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel
- Cask of Jerepigo (1957) Central News Agency
- Unto dust (1963) edited by Lionel Abrahams ISBN 0-7981-1501-7 Anthony Blond
- Bosman at his best: a choice of stories and sketches (1965) edited by Lionel Abrahams ISBN 0-7981-0249-7 Human & Rousseau
- Bosman's Johannesburg (1986) edited by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-7981-2001-0 Human & Rousseau
- Ramoutsa Road (1987) ISBN 0-86852-130-2 Ad. Donker
- A Bekkersdal MarathonA Bekkersdal MarathonA Bekkersdal Marathon is anthology of short stories written by Herman Charles Bosman.-Publication History:The 22 short stories assembled in this volume, published in book format in 1971 by Human and Rousseau, were all written during the last 18 months of Herman Charles Bosman’s life...
(1971) ISBN 0-7981-0030-3 Human & Rousseau - The Earth is Waiting (1974)
- Willemsdorp (1977) ISBN 0-7981-3901-3 Human & Rousseau
- Almost Forgotten Stories (1979) ISBN 0-86978-167-7 H. Timmins
- My Friend Herman Charles Bosman [1980] Perskor. author: Aegidius Jean Blignaut
- Dead End Road [1980] AD.Donker. author: Aegidius Jean Blignaut
- Selected Stories (1980) edited by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-7981-1031-7 Human & Rousseau
- The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman (1981) edited by Lionel Abrahams ISBN 0-86850-029-1 Jonathan Ball
- The Bosman I like (1981) edited by Patrick Mynhardt ISBN 0-7981-1179-8 Human & Rousseau
- Death Hath Eloquence (1981) edited by Aegidius Jean Blignaut ISBN 0-86984-189-0 Christelike Uitgewersmaatskappy
- Uncollected essays (1981) ISBN 0-86978-167-7 Timmins
- The Illustrated Bosman (1985) ISBN 0-86850-112-3 Jonathan Ball
- Makapan's cave and other storie (1987) edited by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-14-009262-5 Penguin Books.
- A Bosman Treasury (1991) edited by Ian Lusted ISBN 0-7981-2830-5 Human & Rousseau
- Jurie Steyn's Post Office (1991) ISBN 0-7981-2903-4 Human & Rousseau
- Herman Charles Bosman : the prose juvenilia (1998) collected and introduced by M.C. Andersen ISBN 1-86888-049-4 University of South Africa
- Idle talk : voorkamer stories (1999) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-3982-X Human & Rousseau
- Old Transvaal Stories (2000) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4085-2 Human & Rousseau
- The Rooinek and Other Boer War Stories (2000) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4031-3 Human & Rousseau
- Jacaranda in the Night (2000) ISBN 0-7981-4084-4 Human & Rousseau
- Best of Bosman (2001) edited by Stephen Gray and Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4203-0 Human & Rousseau
- Seed-Time and Harvest, and Other Stories (2001) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4186-7 Human & Rousseau
- Verborge skatte : Herman Charles Bosman in/on Afrikaans (2001) collected by Leon de Kock ISBN 0-7981-4185-9 Human & Rousseau
Plays
- Cold Stone Jug (1982) adapted by Barney Simon from the play by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-7981-1309-X Human & Rousseau