# Jack Cope > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jack_Cope > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jack_Cope.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cope > Source revision: 1352507058 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|South African novelist, poet and editor (1913–1991)}} {{for|the English cricketer and footballer|Jack Cope (cricketer)}} {{Use South African English|date=May 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Robert Knox "Jack" Cope''' (3 June 1913 – 1 May 1991) was a South African [novelist](/source/novelist), [short story](/source/short_story) writer, [poet](/source/poet) and [editor](/source/editing). ==Life== Jack Cope was born in [Natal](/source/Natal_Province), [South Africa](/source/South_Africa), and home-schooled by tutors. From the age of 12, he boarded at [Durban High School](/source/Durban_High_School) in [Durban](/source/Durban), afterwards becoming a [journalist](/source/journalist) on [Natal Mercury](/source/The_Mercury_(South_Africa)) and then a [political correspondent](/source/political_reporter) in [London](/source/London), England, for South African newspapers. At the outbreak of the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War), in a state of some disillusionment, he returned to South Africa. He moved to [Cape Town](/source/Cape_Town), where he worked for the [Marxist](/source/Marxist) ''Guardian'' newspaper from 1941 to 1955, in various capacities including cultural critic and, at one stage, general editor. For many years, Cope was sympathetic to [Communism](/source/Communism) and the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union). His Communist sympathies ended, however, with disillusionment after the revelation of [Joseph Stalin](/source/Joseph_Stalin)'s crimes in [Nikita Khrushchev](/source/Nikita_Khrushchev)'s [Secret Speech](/source/Secret_Speech). He married his second cousin, the artist Lesley De Villiers in 1942. They separated in 1958 and were divorced in the early 1960s. They had two sons, Raymond (1948–1977) and Michael (born 1952). Jack Cope is well known for his [romantic](/source/romantic_love) attachment (ca. 1960–1964) to [Afrikaans-language](/source/Afrikaans) poet [Ingrid Jonker](/source/Ingrid_Jonker), who is known as South Africa's answer to [Sylvia Plath](/source/Sylvia_Plath). After Jonker committed suicide in 1965, Cope edited a posthumous anthology of her last poems and translated a selection of them into English. ==Fiction== Cope published eight [novels](/source/novels), more than a hundred [short stories](/source/short_stories), and three collections of poetry, the last one in association with [C. J. Driver](/source/Jonty_Driver). For twenty years, beginning in 1960, he edited ''Contrast'', a literary magazine bilingual in [English](/source/English_language) and [Afrikaans](/source/Afrikaans). He co-edited ''[The Penguin Book of South African Verse](/source/The_Penguin_Book_of_South_African_Verse)'' (1968) with [Uys Krige](/source/Uys_Krige) and, as general editor throughout much of the 1970s, produced the Mantis editions of Southern African poets. In 1980, he moved to England, where he published ''The Adversary Within: Dissident Writers in Afrikaans'' (1982) and his ''Selected Stories'' (1986). Cope's first novel, ''The Fair House'' (1955), considers the [Bambata Rebellion](/source/Bambata_Rebellion) of 1906 in an attempt to account for the later [racial](/source/Race_(classification_of_human_beings)) and [political](/source/political) conditions in [South Africa](/source/South_Africa). Later novels, including ''The Golden Oriole'' (1958), ''Albino'' (1964), and ''The Rain-Maker'' (1971), chronicle the white man's destruction of black culture and the ensuing struggle by the blacks to regain their pride and identity. However, it is as a short-story writer that Cope demonstrated his finest talent. His stories evoke, according to [Alan Paton](/source/Alan_Paton), "with a few words the scents and sounds and colours of our country". In "A Crack in the Sky" (''The Tame Ox'', 1960) and "Power" (''The Man Who Doubted and Other Stories'', 1967) his moral vision is clear; his third collection, ''Alley Cat and Other Stories'' (1973), contains darker themes such as those of alienation and loneliness. Among Cope's main achievements was his influence on South African literature during the 1960s and 1970s, important years in the struggle against [apartheid](/source/apartheid). ==In popular culture== The 2011 film ''[Black Butterflies](/source/Black_Butterflies)'' tells the story of the relationship between Ingrid Jonker and Jack Cope, who is portrayed onscreen by [Irish](/source/Irish_people) actor [Liam Cunningham](/source/Liam_Cunningham). ==Selected bibliography== *''Marie: A South African Satire'' (1948) *''The Golden Oriole'' (1958) *''The Road To Ysterberg: A Novel'' (1959) *''The Penguin Book Of South African Verse'' (Co- editor) (1968) *''The Dawn Comes Twice'' (1969) *''The Rain-Maker'' (1971) *''The Africa We Knew'' (1973) *''Lacking A Label'' (1974) *''My Son Max'' (1977) *''Notes Recorded in Sun'' (1979) *''The Adversary Within: Dissident Writers In Afrikaans'' (1982) ==References== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060918083952/http://people.africadatabase.org/en/profile/15849.html Jack Cope at the Contemporary African Database] * [http://home.earthlink.net/~jzug/the_guardian.html Zug, J: The Guardian: the history of South Africa's extraordinary anti-apartheid newspaper, Michigan State University Press, 2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080331135645/http://home.earthlink.net/~jzug/the_guardian.html |date=31 March 2008 }} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cope, Jack}} Category:1913 births Category:1991 deaths Category:20th-century South African poets Category:Alumni of Durban High School Category:South African anti-apartheid activists Category:South African male poets Category:South African people of British descent Category:White South African anti-apartheid activists --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jack Cope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cope) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cope?action=history)). 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