About Alan Paton
Alan Stewart Paton was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), Too Late the Phalarope (1953), and the short story The Waste Land. His mother, Eunice Warder Paton, a woman of English background, was also well known for her integrity and strong belief in God. After graduation, Paton worked as a teacher, first at the Ixopo High School, and subsequently at Maritzburg College. 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. Paton published numerous books in the 1950s and became wealthy from their sales.
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