Don Maclennan

Don Maclennan
South African poet photographed in 1984

Donald Alasdair Calum Maclennan (9 December 1929 – 9 February 2009) was a South African poet, critic, playwright and English professor.

He published a number of plays, short stories, collections of poems and scholarly works.

Born on 9 December 1929, in London, England, Maclennan came to South Africa as a child in 1938. He was educated at Witwatersrand University and Edinburgh University.^[1]

Maclennan's academic career included lecturing at Wits University and the University of Cape Town.^[2] He taught in both South Africa and the United States.^[3] He began teaching at Rhodes University in 1966, teaching English there for more than 40 years,^[2] although he officially retired in 1994. In later years, he continued to teach at the university, giving weekly seminars for another decade.^[4]

In his final years, he self-published a number of works of poetry.^[4] In his last decade, Maclennan had motor-neuron disease. He suffered a stroke in January 2009, although his mind was not affected by it. He died 9 February 2009, in Port Elizabeth.^[2]

Bibliography

Years link to corresponding "[year] in poetry" article for poetry; for literature, to corresponding "[year] in literature" article:

Poetry

• 1971: In Memoriam Oskar Wolberheim, A.A. Balkema, combining Maclennan's poetry and the music of Norbert Nowotny^[1]
• 1977: Life Songs, Bateleur Press^[1]
• 1983: Reckonings,^[1] New Africa Books, ISBN 978-0-908396-95-5^[5]
• 1988: Collecting Darkness, Justified Press, ISBN 978-0-9474510-3-5^[1]
• 1992: Letters: New Poems, Carrefour Press, ISBN 978-0-9583178-7-0^[6]
• 1995: The Poetry Lesson: New Poems^[1] Snailpress, ISBN 978-1-874923-25-1^[7]
• 1997: Solstice: Poems, ISBN 978-1-874923-40-4,^[8] winner of South Africa's Sanlam Literary Award for 1997^[1]
• 1998: Of Women and Some Men^[1] with George Coutouvidis, Firfield Poetry Press, ISBN 978-1-875058-16-7 ^[9]
• 2001:
  • Notes from a Rhenish Mission,^[1] Firfield Press, ISBN 978-1-875058-17-4 ^[10]
  • A Brief History of Madness in the Eastern Cape, with drawings by Siddis Firfield^[1] Firfield Press, ISBN 978-1-875058-17-4 ^[1]
• Bateleur Poets, ISBN 978-0-620-02281-1 ^[11]
• 2002: Rock paintings at Salem, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2002: The Road to Kromdraai,^[1] Publisher Snailpress, ISBN 978-1-874923-63-3^[12]
• 2003: The Dinner Party, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2003: A Letter to William Blake, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2003: Under Compassberg, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2004: Excavations,^[1] self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2005: Reading the Signs, Carapace
• 2006: The necessary salt, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2006: Selected Poems, Quartz Press
• 2007: The owl of Minerva, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• Through a Glass Darkly, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2010: Dress Rehearsal, self-published, Rhodes University GSU

Other works

• An Enquiry into the Voyage of the Santiago, a play^[4]
• Job Mava, a play, written and performed in 1972/3 by The Ikhwezi Players, published 1981/2^[4]
• My Childhood, adaptation of Maxim Gorky's play, performed in 1975 by The Ikhwezi Players^[4]
• 2004: Editor, with Malcolm Hacksley, A Ruthless Fidelity: Collected Poems of Douglas Livingstone,^[1] publisher: Ad Donker, ISBN 978-0-86852-232-6^[13]
• Olive Schreiner and After: Essays on Southern African Literature in Honour of Guy Butler^[1] Publisher: D. Philip, ISBN 978-0-908396-92-4^[14]
• Sarah Christie, Don Maclennan, Geoffrey Hutchings, Perspectives on South African Fiction, Publisher Ad. Donker, ISBN 978-0-949937-74-2^[15]

Notes