Lionel Abrahams was a South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n novelist, poet, editor, critic, essayist and publisher. He was born in Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, where he lived his entire life. He was born with cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement....

 and had to use a wheelchair from 11 years of age.

Best known for his poetry, he was mentored by Herman Charles Bosman

Herman Charles Bosman

Herman Charles Bosman is the South African writer widely regarded as South Africa's greatest short story writer. He studied the works of Edgar Alan Poe and Mark Twain, and developed a style emphasizing the use of irony...

, and he and later edited seven volumes of Bosman's posthumously published works. Abrahams went on to become one of the most influential figures in South African literature in his own right, publishing numerous poems, essays, and two novels. Through Renoster Books, which he started in 1956, he published works by Oswald Mtshali and Mongane Wally Serote

Mongane Wally Serote

Mongane Wally Serote is a South African poet and writer. He was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg and went to school in Alexandra, Lesotho and Soweto. He first became involved in Black Consciousness when he was finishing high school in Soweto...

 heralding the emergence of black poetry during the apartheid era.

In 1986, he married Jane Fox. That year, he was awarded honorary doctorates of literature by the University of the Witwatersrand

University of the Witwatersrand

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...

 and the University of Natal

University of Natal

The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...

.

Novels

• The Celibacy of Felix Greenspan: A novel in 18 stories, published by Bateleur Press, 1977
• The White Life of Felix Greenspan, published by M&G Books, 2002

Poetry

• Journal of a New Man, published by Ad Donker, 1984
• The Writer in Sand, published by Ad Donker, 1988
• A Dead Tree Full of Live Birds, published by Snail Press, 1988
• Chaos Theory of the Heart, to be published by Jacana Media and Roaring Forties Press, 2005
• To Halley's Comet, publishers unknown,

Works about Lionel Abrahams

• Lionel Abrahams: A Reader, ed. Patrick Cullinan, published by Ad Donker, 1988
• A Writer in Stone: South African Writers Celebrate the 70th Birthday of Lionel Abrahams, ed. G. Friedman and Roy Blumenthal, published by David Philip, 1998