Lionel Abrahams

Infobox Writer
bgcolour = silver
name = Lionel Abrahams


image_size = 100px
birth_date = birth date|1928|4|11|
deathdate = death date|2004|5|30|mf=y Age 76
birth_place = Pretoria, South Africa
occupation = Poet
nationality = South African
magnum opus =
influences = Herman Charles Bosman
influenced =

Lionel Abrahams (1928– 31 May, 2004) was a South African novelist, poet, editor, critic, essayist and publisher. He was born in Johannesburg, where he lived his entire life. [cite book|title=South African Jewish Voices|pages=268|publisher=Micah Publications|date=1982|isbn=0916288102|last=Kalechofsky|first=Roberta|coauthors=Nadine Gordimer] He was born with cerebral palsy and had to use a wheelchair until he was 11 years old.

Best known for his poetry, he was mentored by Herman Charles Bosman,cite web|title=Obituary: Lionel Abrahams|last=Pogrund|first=Anne|date=2004-06-09|publisher=The Independent (London)|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040609/ai_n12790382|accessdate=2008-07-04] and he and later edited seven volumes of Bosman's posthumously published works. [cite web|title=Lionel Abrahams|publisher=South Africa - Poetry International Web|url=http://southafrica.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=5380|last=Ferguson|first=Gus|accessdate=2008-07-04] Abrahams went on to become one of the most influential figures in South African literature in his own right, [cite book|title=A Writer in Stone: South African Writers Celebrate the 70th Birthday of Lionel Abrahams|pages=45|last=Friedman|first=Graeme|coauthors=Roy Blumenthal; Lionel Abrahams|isbn=0864864280|publisher=David Philip Publishers|date=1998] [cite book|pages=1|isbn=770090975|title=Chaos Theory of the Heart & Other Poems Mainly Since 1990|last=Abrahams|first=Lionel|publisher=Jacana Media|date=2005] publishing numerous poems, essays, and two novels. Through Renoster Books, which he started in 1956, he published works by Oswald Mtshali and Mongane Wally Serote heralding the emergence of black poetry during the apartheid era.

In 1986, he married Jane Fox. That year, he was awarded honorary doctorates of literature by the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Natal. [cite book|title=Exchanges: South African Writing in Transition|pages=110|last=Brown|first=Duncan|coauthors=Bruno Van Dyk|date=1991|publisher=University of Natal Press|isbn=0869807897]

Novels

*"The Celibacy of Felix Greenspan: A novel in 18 stories, published by Bateleur Press, 1977"
*"The White Life of Felix Greenspan, published by M&G Books, 2002"

Poetry

*"Journal of a New Man, published by Ad Donker, 1984"
*"The Writer in Sand, published by Ad Donker, 1988"
*"A Dead Tree Full of Live Birds, published by Snail Press, 1988"
*"Chaos Theory of the Heart, to be published by Jacana Media and Roaring Forties Press, 2005"

Works about Lionel Abrahams

*"Lionel Abrahams: A Reader, ed. Patrick Cullinan, published by Ad Donker, 1988"
*"A Writer in Stone: South African Writers Celebrate the 70th Birthday of Lionel Abrahams, ed. G. Friedman and Roy Blumenthal, published by David Philip, 1998"

References