Etienne Leroux


Etienne Leroux was an Afrikaans writer and a member of the South African Sestigers literary movement.

Early life and career

Etienne Leroux was born in Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape on 13 June 1922 as Stephanus Petrus Daniël le Roux, son of S.P. Le Roux, a South African Minister of Agriculture. He studied Law at Stellenbosch University and worked for a short time at a solicitor's office in Bloemfontein. From 1946 he farmed and lived as a writer on his farm in the Koffiefontein district. Etienne was a scholar at Grey College Bloemfontein where he matriculated.
His 1968 Een vir Azazel was translated into English as One for the Devil, and makes use of the Azazel myth.
He died on 30 December 1989, and was buried at the family church yard of Wamakersdrift, of which his farm formed part.
Graham Greene wrote: "His audience will be the audience that only a good writer can merit, an audience which assembles slowly in ones and twos... the rumour spreads that here an addition will be found to the literature of our time."

Awards

Etienne Leroux. Die eerste siklus. Die eerste lewe van Colet - Hilaria - Die mugu.
A biography of Etienne Leroux, by the respected biographer of Afrikaans writers, John Christoffel Kannemeyer, was published in July 2008.

Selected publications