RIP Nadine Gordimer

I write today to pay tribute to the great South African writer, Nadine Gordimer, who died July 13, 2014, at the age of 90. Gordimer was the author of 15 novels and more than two dozen collections of stories and essays. Her novels include “July’s People,” “Burger’s Daughter,” “A Sport of Nature,” and “The Conservationist,” which won the Booker Prize in 1974. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. She is known not only for her great writing, but also for her lifelong activism against apartheid and white minority rule in her country. This was not easy, as evidenced by the fact that several of her works were banned or censored in South Africa. She worked against racism and supported Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC). I admire Gordimer for being part of a great tradition of courageous authors who are not only excellent by literary standards, but also passionate and active in writing about and fighting against the injustices of their time.