Congo Song Author:Stuart Colete Plot description: Olga is occupied by her tame Gorilla. — Author description: Edward Fairly Stuart Graham Cloete, South African novelist, essayist, biographer and short story writer, was born on July 23, 1897, in Paris, France to a French mother and South African father. He lived most of his adult life in the town of Hermanus, in the Western Cape... more ». He published his first novel, Turning Wheels, in 1937, which became a best-seller, selling more than two-million copies. Importation of the book was subsequently banned in South Africa, owing to its commentary on the Great Trek, the event in which the book is set.
Many of his 14 novels and most of his short stories are historically based fictional adventures, set against the backdrop of major African, and, in particular, South African historical events. Apart from Turning Wheels, another prominent novel, 1963's Rags of Glory, is set during the Anglo-Boer war (with, according to its forward, much of the historical information based on Rayne Kruger's Goodbye Dolly Gray.) Two of his novels were made in to movies: The Fiercest Heart, 1961 is based on his novel of the same name, published in 1955. Majuba, released in 1968, is based on The Hill of the Doves, his novel of 1941.
His short stories are also much-acclaimed. He published at least eight volumes [his biography says eight, but I have more! asb. help here] in his lifetime.
Other written media to which he contributed includes poetry, collected in a volume published in 1941, The Young Men and the Old; biographies (African Portraits, 1946).
He published the first part of his autobiography, A Victorian Son, in 1972 and the second, the Gambler, in 1973. Stuart Cloete died on March 19, 1976, in Cape Town, South Africa.« less