艾伦·帕顿

艾伦·斯图尔特·佩顿（1903年1月11日-1988年4月12日）是一位南非作家和反种族隔离活动家。他是《哭吧，亲爱的祖国》的作者。1953年5月9日，南非自由党成立，艾伦·佩顿是该党创始成员，后来担任该党主席。

Alan Stewart Paton (11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988) was a South African writer, anti-apartheid activist, and educator. His works include the novels Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), Too Late the Phalarope (1953), and the short story The Waste Land. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Ikhamanga in Gold for his literary contributions to the anti-apartheid movement.

Early life

Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg in the Colony of Natal (now South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province). He was the son of James Paton, a civil servant and Scottish immigrant, and Eunice Warder Paton (née James), a schoolteacher of English descent. Both of his parents were deeply religious, raising him in the Christadelphian faith, and neither was highly educated. Paton's father was a strict disciplinarian whose beatings instilled in him a lasting opposition to corporal punishment, but who also introduced him to literature and inspired him to love nature. He was closer to his mother, who was well known for her integrity and faith. She had a strong influence over Paton's values as a child, particularly through the development of his compassion for others and his desire to promote social justice.

After attending Maritzburg College for high school, Paton earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Natal in his hometown. He also got a diploma in education. After graduation, Paton worked as a teacher, first at the Ixopo High School, and subsequently at Maritzburg College.

Early career

Paton served as the principal of Diepkloof Reformatory for young (native African) offenders from 1935 to 1949. A year before he started as principal, the South African parliament transferred reformatory institutions for juveniles from the Department of Prisons to the Union Education Department, opening up principal positions at several reformatories. Paton expressed interest in a principal position to his close friend Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (1894–1948), a politician, who advised Paton to apply to them. Ultimately, Paton was appointed to principal at Diepkloof at the age of 32 on July 1, 1935. His main task, as expressed by Hofmeyer, was the transform Diepkloof from a prison to a school.

He introduced controversial progressive reforms, including policies on open dormitories, work permits, and home visitation. The young men were initially housed in closed dormitories; once they had proven themselves trustworthy, they would be transferred to open dormitories within the compound. Men who showed great trustworthiness would be permitted to work outside the compound. In some cases, men were permitted to reside outside the compound under the supervision of a care family. Fewer than 5% of the 10,000 men who were given home leave during Paton's years at Diepkloof ever broke their trust by failing to return.

Later career

Paton volunteered for military service with the British Commonwealth forces during World War II, but was refused by the South African authorities. After the war he took a journey, at his own expense, to tour correctional facilities across the world. He toured Scandinavia, Britain, continental Europe, Canada, and the United States. During his time in Norway, he began work on his seminal novel Cry, the Beloved Country, which he completed over the course of his journey, finishing it on Christmas Eve in San Francisco in 1946. There, he met Aubrey and Marigold Burns, who read his manuscript and found a publisher: the editor Maxwell Perkins, noted for editing novels of Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, guided Paton's first novel through publication with Scribner's.

In 1953, Paton published the novel Too Late the Phalarope.

On 11 January 2018, a Google Doodle honored the author on what would have been his 115th birthday.