Nadine Gordimer: 1923-2014

Nadine Gordimer. Photo: Zwelethu Mthethwa.

Nadine Gordimer, the South African writer most famously known for her humanistic portrayal of the effects of apartheid, died in Johannesburg on Sunday July 13. The author of over 30 books, including The Conservationist, Burger’s Daughter, and July’s People, Gordimer was awarded the Booker Prize in 1974 and the Nobel Prize in 1991.

Several of Gordimer’s novels were banned in South Africa and her activism not only focused on political equality and the end of apartheid, but also on censorship and freedom of speech. In memory of her significant contribution to literature, Sampsonia Way presents Gordimer’s reading of an early story, “A Style of Her Own,” at the 92nd Street Y in 1961, along with an interview published 2011 in which she discusses her writing about apartheid, freedom of expression in South Africa, and her short story “Beethoven was One-Sixteenth Black.”