Ruth First

Standard Name: First, Ruth

Connections

Connections Sort ascending Author name Excerpt
Textual Production Olive Schreiner
Schreiner claims that she began writing the book in the1880s, and that in 1900 most of the manuscript was destroyed while she was absent from Johannesburg and her home was looted during the Boer war...
Textual Production Gillian Slovo
She dedicated the book to her parents, Ruth and Joe .
Textual Features Olive Schreiner
The novel deals with a group of people living on an isolated Boer farm in South Africa: the landscape of the Karoo is a very important feature. According to Ruth First and Ann Scott ...
Textual Features Gillian Slovo
She begins her story electrifyingly with the events leading up to her mother's assassination, then with the way that the news was received by various members of the family, and the way that Ruth First
Residence Gillian Slovo
GS , her younger sister , and her mother (who had been given an exit visa, not a passport) flew from Johannesburg in South Africa to Heathrow Airport in England.
Slovo, Gillian. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown.
103-6
politics Nadine Gordimer
NG 's anti-apartheid politics were formed by small personal experiences. The first was seeing, as a twelve-year-old, police destroying the backyard room of a black servant while the employers, her parents, watched impassively.
Brockes, Emma. “A Life in Books. Nadine Gordimer”. The Guardian, pp. Review 12 - 13.
Review 12
Material Conditions of Writing Gillian Slovo
When she told her father (who was already ill with cancer) that she wanted to learn more about the past of Ruth First (his wife, her mother), to enable her to write this book, he...
Literary responses Olive Schreiner
Clayton considers that this unwieldy novel is a result of the multifaceted nature of Schreiner's life experiences, and the various perspectives she had of them over time. She also notes that it reflects historical changes...
Literary responses Olive Schreiner
Biographers Ruth First and Ann Scott call the book both Undine's and Olive's story,
First, Ruth, and Ann Scott. Olive Schreiner. André Deutsch.
84
and Cherry Clayton agrees with them that it is Schreiner's first transition from the diary to the novel form. To...
Intertextuality and Influence Gillian Slovo
In July 1982, when GS was having difficulty with the manuscript of Morbid Symptoms and had almost given up writing it, she had a letter from her mother (the last she ever received) offering encouragement...
Friends, Associates Deborah Levy
DL 's parents knew famous political figures like Nelson and Winnie Mandela , Ruth First , Joe Slovo , and Helen Joseph . Deborah's sister had Joseph as namesake-godmother,
“Norman Levy”. SAHO South African History Online.
Levy, Norman. The Final Prize. My Life in the Anti-apartheid Struggle. South African History Online.
317, 382
, while Deborah was...
Family and Intimate relationships Deborah Levy
DL 's father, Norman Levy , was the twin youngest child of Lithuanian immigrants. He was a teacher and an anti-apartheid campaigner: a Communist , a member of organizations like the banned African National Congress
Family and Intimate relationships Gillian Slovo
GS 's mother, Ruth First , was arrested and removed for ninety days' imprisonment without trial under the Preventive Detention or No-Trial Act: she spent more than ninety days in solitary confinement.
Slovo, Gillian. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown.
65-70
Family and Intimate relationships Gillian Slovo
Ruth First , Communist anti-apartheid activist and mother of GS , was killed by a letter-bomb in her office at Mondlane University in Maputo, capital of Mozambique. The powerful explosion blew her body to shreds.
Slovo, Gillian. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown.
3, 7-9, 24
Family and Intimate relationships Gillian Slovo
Her mother, Ruth First , journalist and anti-apartheid activist, was the daughter of two life-long communists,
Slovo, Gillian. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown.
23
who were also Jewish peasant immigrants to South Africa from the Baltic states. She was born into...

Timeline

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Texts

First, Ruth, and Ann Scott. Olive Schreiner. André Deutsch, 1980.