J.M. Coetzee:
a life in writing
Translated by Michiel Heyns
Overview
J.M. Coetzee: a life in writing is the first biography of Nobel prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee. A global publishing event of the rarest kind, the book has been written with the full co-operation of Coetzee, who granted the author interviews, and put him in touch with family, friends, and colleagues who could talk about events in Coetzee’s life.
For the first time, Coetzee allowed complete access to his private papers and documents, including the manuscripts of his sixteen novels. J.C. Kannemeyer has also made a study of the enormous body of literature on Coetzee, and through archival research has unearthed further information not previously available.
The books deals in depth with Coetzee’s origins, early years, and first writings; his British interlude from 1962–65; his time in America from 1965–71; his 30 years back in South Africa, when he achieved international recognition and won the Booker prize; and his Australian years since 2002, during which time he won the Nobel Prize.
J.M. Coetzee: a life in writing is a major work that corrects many of the misconceptions about Coetzee, and that illuminates the genesis and implications of his novels. This magisterial biography will be an indispensable source for everybody concerned with Coetzee’s life and work.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- Pub date
- Hardback
- 234mm x 153mm
- 712 pages
- 9781922070081
- 16 November 2012
Categories
Praise
‘Social media and the modern publishing industry have altered the role of the writer, requiring certain types of self-promotion anathema to many whose talents lie in sitting alone at a desk thinking, reading and writing. Kannemeyer comments on ‘‘the essentially unknowable subject that the biographer tries in vain to capture’’ in Summertime, finding in this an ‘‘unambiguous warning for any real-life biographer who might want to trace the life of J.M. Coetzee’’. Yet Kannemeyer has produced a labour of careful scholarship, evidently born of a deep interest in and affection for Coetzee’s work.’
‘What makes great novels are great writers. The Coetzee-as-writer presented here is possibly the essence of the man.’
About the Author
J.C. Kannemeyer was professor of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University. He was the author of a two-volume history of Afrikaans literature, as well as of six extensive biographies of Afrikaans authors. Professor Kannemeyer died on 25 December 2011.
Translator
Michiel Heyns is a South African author, translator, and academic. He has won numerous awards for his reviews, translations, and novels.
