William Plomer

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William Plomer (born December 10, 1903 in Pietersburg , South Africa , † September 21, 1973 in Lewes , East Sussex , England ) was a South African-English writer.

Life

Plomer's parents were English who lived in South Africa. He first grew up in South Africa, but then attended schools in England, Kent and rugby for four years . After the First World War he returned to South Africa and worked as a salesman for a while.

In 1925, his first novel, Turbott Wolfe, was published by Hogarth Press , on the subject of a relationship between a white woman and a black man. In 1926, Plomer was co-editor of the politically opposition literary magazine Voorslag in South Africa alongside Roy Campbell and Laurens van der Post . He lived in Japan for three years in the late 1920s and then moved to England in 1929, where he stayed for the rest of his life.

He frequented literary circles around the writer Virginia Woolf and worked as an editor for the Faber & Faber publishing house. He did not live out his homosexuality openly, but it formed an important impetus for his literary work. Plomer published numerous volumes of poetry, short stories, novels as well as biographical and autobiographical works. He has also written libretti for several operas by Benjamin Britten .

Works

  • Turbott Wolfe. Novel. (1925)
  • Notes for poems. Poems. (1927)
  • I speak of Africa. Short stories. (1927)
  • The family tree. Poems. (1928)
  • Paper houses. Short stories. (1929)
  • Sado. Novel. (1931)
  • The case is altered. Novel. (1932)
  • The fivefold screen. Poems. (1932)
  • The child of Queen Victoria. Short stories. (1933)
  • Cecil Rhodes. Biography. (1933)
  • The invaders. Novel. (1934)
  • Visiting the caves. Poems. (1936)
  • Ali the Lion. Biography. (1936)
  • Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert (1870-1879). (1938)
  • Selected poems. Poems. (1940)
  • In a bombed house. Poems. (1942)
  • Double lives. Memoirs. (1943)
  • The Dorking Thigh, and other satires. Poems. (1945)
  • Four countries. Short stories. (1949)
  • Museum pieces. Novel. (1952)
  • A shot in the park. Poems. (1955)
  • At home. Memoirs. (1958)
  • A choice of ballads. Poems. (1960)
  • Taste and remember. Poems. (1966)
  • The autobiography of William Plomer. (1975)
  • Electric Delights. Edited by Rupert Harte-Davis. (1978)

literature

  • Peter F. Alexander: William Plomer: A Biography. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989
  • John Robert Doyle: William Plomer. Twayne Publishers, New York 1969
personal data
SURNAME Plomer, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African-British writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Pietersburg , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1973
Place of death Lewes , UK