The supreme event in Afrikaans literature was the appearance of a group of talented poets, the Dertigers (“Poets of the ’30s”), begun by W.E.G. Louw with Die ryke dwaas (1934; “The Rich Fool”). This sensitive poet, with his searing conflicts between God and Eros, exemplified qualities soon to become the new generation’s hallmark. He was followed by his elder...

...life—and, eventually, even opposition to apartheid. The first two decades of the 20th century were dominated by such poets as Jakob Daniel du Toit and C. Louis Leipoldt. The appearance of the Dertigers (“Thirtyers,” poets of the 1930s), a group of talented poets including W.E.G. Louw, signified the new standard in Afrikaans literature. Prominent among the Sestigers, who...

...in South Africa, and fiercely partisan organizations such as the Afrikaner-Broederbond and Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge gained new adherents. The Afrikaner poets known as the Dertigers (“Thirtyers,” or writers of the 1930s) infuriated conservative Afrikaners with a new type of poetry. The poetry of W.E.G. Louw, N.P. van Wyk Louw, and Elisabeth Eybers was at...