Fascinating Facts About Nadine Gordimer, South African Author & Activist

By Alex J. Coyne | On September 2, 2024 | Comments (0)

Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) was one of South Africa’s foremost authors and anti-apartheid activists. Gordimer’s writing is internationally known for providing a rare window into politics, the human condition, and how they intersect. Mentions of her work can still spark fiery discussions today.

Following are some fascinating facts about Nadine Gordimer, whose work was recognized with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.

Gordimer published her first short story collection, Face to Face, in 1949; her debut semi-autobiographical novel, The Lying Days, was published in 1953. She continued writing prolifically until her death.

Gordimer’s mother founded a daycare in apartheid South Africa

Gordimer found her political and activist roots early in life, starting with her upbringing by parents who had immigrated to South Africa. Her mother, Hannah Gordimer, was a Jewish immigrant from London who had seen her fair share of discrimination.

Hannah Gordimer founded a daycare that accepted children of color, something that was highly unusual — and illegal — for its time.

Growing up in an environment where discrimination and racism held less authority was pivotal in forming Gordimer’s worldview, and eventually inspired much of her work and political activism.

Gordimer started publishing as a teenager

By the time she was a teenager, Gordimer was writing children’s stories for several newspapers, finding her literary beginnings long before her debut stories and novels were published.

Her first short story, “The Quest for Seen Gold,” was published in the Children’s Sunday Express in 1937. Perhaps her upbringing in Springs, a small mining town, had an impact on writing about quests for gold.

She reportedly also drew from her own life for her debut novel The Lying Days (1953), which is considered autobiographical. Like the story’s protagonist, Gordimer moved outside her small hometown to “the big city” later in her life.

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Learn more about Nadine Gordimer
(photo from the Nobel Prize Archive)
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Several of Gordimer’s novels were banned or censored in the apartheid era

Gordimer was one of the authors subjected to apartheid book banning, which made reading or owning any of the listed books a criminal offense.

The Late Bourgeois World was the first book to be banned in 1976, the same year in which the violent Soweto Uprising took place. The apartheid government also banned Burger’s Daughter (1979) and July’s People (1981) soon after their publication.

Gordimer protested the book bans together with other authors, leading to their unbanning just months after the books had been placed on the list. According to the then-government, Gordimer’s books were too ’one-sided’ to continue being controversial. See more in The Banning of Nadine Gordimer’s Anti-Apartheid Novels.

Gordimer maintained a close friendships with Nelson Mandela

Gordimer moved in anti-apartheid and political circles, which formed the foundation for some of her stories. Allies and friendships were especially important to her, as she mentioned the arrest of friends as pivotal to her more serious political activism. That includes one of the reasons she joined the African National Congress (ANC) when it was still a banned organization.

Her friendships with Nelson Mandela’s attorneys, Bram Fischer and George Bizos, would also form a direct inspiration for her later novels.

Gordimer remained connected with Nelson Mandela during the time of his 1962 trial, and advised him on his 1964 trial defense speech. Upon Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, Gordimer was one of the first people he requested to see.

Gordimer’s personal life was the subject of an unauthorized biography

Nadine Gordimer was married twice in her life, first to Gerald Gavron (1949 to 1950), and then to Reinhold Cassirer (1951 to 2001). Her marriages generated plenty of controversy later in her life, becoming the subject of an unauthorized biography.

The biography claimed an affair by Gordimer in the 1950s as well as further claims regarding her second husband’s death: Gordimer immediately pulled her approval for the manuscript, though it was still published as an account of her life in 2006.

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Gordimer wrote about post-apartheid South Africa in her “transitional period”

Nadine Gordimer went from writing about apartheid to exploring the possibilities within a free and unoppressed South Africa. With a career spanning several decades, Gordimer saw enormous changes in the country.

Her later writing went beyond apartheid themes, including how legal changes affected the average household. In The House Gun, she explored what would happen if a household firearm killed someone — and the novel greatly used the mindset of gun ownership in a political environment as a storytelling tool.

Her further transitional writing explored themes like romance and immigration, branching into the politically-loaded international love story The Pickup (2001).

July’s People was briefly censored again in 2001

Gordimer’s writing wasn’t just banned during apartheid years, but also became a source of controversy in later years: July’s People was removed from school reading lists by the Department of Education in 2001.

According to the department, the book was too controversial for the provincial school curriculum. However, Gordimer was quick to protest the ban, like she had done previously.

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8 Essential Novels by Nadine Gordimer
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Nadine Gordimer lectured in Canada

Nadine Gordimer spent time as lecturer outside the boundaries of Southern Africa, though she never left the country permanently. She didn’t wish to be cut off from her country of origin.

In the early 2000s, she briefly left Southern Africa and lectured at Massey College at the University of Toronto. However, she eventually returned to South Africa, and continued to live in her Parktown, Johannesburg home until her passing.

No Cold Kitchen is an unauthorized biography of Gordimer’s life

No Cold Kitchen (2006) by Ronald Suresh Roberts is considered an unauthorized biography of Nadine Gordimer’s life. However, it was originally supposed to be a biography written alongside the author, and with her final approval.

Gordimer withdrew her approval for the manuscript’s draft, citing disputes about a 1950s affair and further disagreements about her husband (Kassimer’s) illness and death. In her accounts, Gordimer claimed the book’s author had breached their trust agreement, and refused to grant her approval. However, Roberts went ahead and published the unauthorized biography.

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Contributed by Alex J. Coyne, a journalist, author, and proofreader. He has written for a variety of publications and websites, with a radar calibrated for gothic, gonzo and the weird. His features, posts, articles and interviews have been published in People Magazine, ATKV Taalgenoot, LitNet, The Citizen, Funds for Writers, and The South African, among other publications.

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