- Richard Rive
Richard Moore Rive (1931 in Cape Town–1989 ) was a South African writer.
Biography
Rive was born on
1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in the working-class district ofCape Town called "District Six". [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m0bgeQPQXu4C&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=%22Richard+Rive%22&source=web&ots=MZFjY-gEDh&sig=dFR6vx_6HHehZvXxxt0gI5U8J7c&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result Voices of Justice and Reason] , Geoffrey V. Davis, 2003, ISBN 9042008261] ] Although not classified as white in theApartheid country, Rive was able to have an academic career in his home country, as well as overseas. In 1963 he was able to travel overseas due to a scholarship organised by the editor of Drum magazine,Esk'ia Mphalele . In 1965 he was awarded aFulbright scholarship and later obtained a research fellowship at theUniversity of Oxford . He wrote a doctoral thesis onOlive Schreiner which was published after his death in 1996. [Olive Schreiner: Letters: 1871-1899 (Hardcover), Robert Rive, 1996, ISBN:0864860641] .Rive was a firm believer in anti-racism [ [http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/southeast/blackhistory/#rick Where the Rainbow Ends] , Robert Rive, accessed
8 August 2008 ] but decided to stay in his country in order that he could influence its development there.Rive focused initially published his stories collections or in South African magazines like "Drum" and "Fighting Talk". He won a prize for his short story "The Bench" which is still anthologised. "The Bench" takes the well known story of
Rosa Parkes and sets it in South Africa. He wrote novels called: "Emergency" (1964) set against theSharpeville massacre and what is regarded as his best novel, "Buckingham Palace District Six" which was published in 1986. This novel turned into a musical by a theatre in Cape Town. He also published an dissappointing autobiography entitled, " Writing Black" in 1981.His last novel, "Emergency Continued", was published posthumously as Rive was stabbed to death during a robbery at his home in Cape Town in 1989.
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
