Es’kia Mphahlele's works on display
Edwin Tshivhidzo
3 November 2008
The National Library of South Africa has placed the published material of the late Es’kia Mphahlele on display for members of the public to view.
Mphahlele, a world-renowned author of two autobiographies, more than 30 short stories, two verse plays and a number of poems, passed away in the Lebowakgomo Hospital in Limpopo province last Monday.
Speaking at the opening of the display in Pretoria on Friday, National Librarian John Tsebe said the exhibition was in honour and recognition of the works of Professor Mphahlele.
Mphahlele launched his literary career with the publication of Man Must Live in 1946. It was the only second collection of short stories in English by an African writer, after Dark Testament by Peter Abrahams, who had been his classmate at St Peter's.
His literary and academic career took off in exile, while his career as a novelist produced The Wanderers, a novel of exile originally submitted as a dissertation for his PhD in creative writing.
In a career spanning 60 years, Mphahlele received many international awards, including several honorary doctoral degrees and the Les Palmes Academiques medal from the French government for his contribution to French language and culture.
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1968, and in 1998 former President Nelson Mandela awarded him the Order of the Southern Cross.
- MediaClubSouthAfrica.com: Remembering Es'kia Mphahlele
Source: BuaNews
