1906- . South African writer, whose books,
many of them autobiographical, reflect his
openness to diverse cultures and his belief
in the importance of intuition, individualism
and myth in human experience. A formative
influence was his time spent with the San
Bushmen of the Kalahari while growing up, and
whose disappearing culture he recorded in The
Lost World of the Kalahari 1958, The Heart of
the Hunter 1961, and Testament to the Bushmen
1984. His first novel In a Province 1934 was
an indictment of racism in South Africa;
later works include Flamingo Feather 1955,
The Hunter and the Whale 1967, A Story like
the Wind 1972, and A Far-off Place 1974. He
wrote about Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in
The Seed and the Sower 1963. He was knighted
in 1980.