Richard Rive

{{Short description|South African writer and academic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox writer  | name = Richard Moore Rive | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date |1931|03|01|df=yes}} | birth_place = Cape Town, Union of South Africa | death_date = {{death date and age|1989|06|04|1931|03|01|df=yes}} | death_place = Cape Town, South Africa | resting_place = | occupation = | language = | nationality = | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = Trafalgar High School | alma_mater = University of Cape Town<br /> Columbia University<br />Magdalen College, Oxford University | period = | genre =  | subject =  | movement = | notableworks = 'Buckingham Palace', District Six | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = | portaldisp =  }}

'''Richard Moore Rive''' (1 March 1931 – 4 June 1989) was a South African writer and academic, who was from Cape Town.

==Biography== Rive was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in the working-class Coloured residential area District Six of Cape Town.<ref name=voice>Geoffrey V. Davis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=m0bgeQPQXu4C&dq=%22Richard+Rive%22&pg=PA95 ''Voices of Justice and Reason''], Editions Rodopi, 2003, pp. 95-100. {{ISBN|90-420-0826-1}}</ref>

His father was African, and his mother was Coloured.<ref name=Bookrags>[http://www.bookrags.com/biography/richard-moore-rive-dlb/ "Richard (Moore) Rive"], ''Dictionary of Literary Biography''.</ref> Rive was given the latter classification under apartheid. Rive went to St Mark's Primary School and Trafalgar High School,<ref name=Blackpast>Paul Frailey, [http://www.blackpast.org/gah/rive-richard-moore-1931-1989 "Richard Rive"], Blackpast.org, retrieved 13 August 2014.</ref> both in District Six. In 1951 he went to Hewat College of Education in Athlone, where he qualified as a teacher. He was a prominent sportsman (a South African hurdles champion while a student) and a school sports administrator.

He acquired a BA degree from the University of Cape Town in 1962. In 1963 he was given a scholarship organised by Es'kia Mphahlele, the editor of ''Drum'' magazine,<ref name=voice/> in which Rive published some of his early writing. His first novel, ''Emergency'' was published in 1964. In 1965 Rive was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. He earned an MA degree (1966) from Columbia University in the United States, and a Ph.D. from Oxford University (1974).<ref name=Bookrags /> His doctoral thesis on Olive Schreiner would be published posthumously, in 1996.<ref>Robert Rive, ''Olive Schreiner: Letters: 1871-1899'' (hardcover), 1996, {{ISBN|0864860641}}</ref>

Rive was for many years Head of the English Department at Hewat College. He was a visiting professor at several overseas universities, including Harvard University in 1987. He also delivered guest lectures at more than 50 universities on four continents.

A firm believer in anti-racism,<ref>Robert Rive, [http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/southeast/blackhistory/#rick "Where the Rainbow Ends"], accessed 8 August 2008.</ref> Rive decided to stay in his country with the hope of influencing its development there. He lived comfortably, in a new California-style home in Windsor Park in Kraaifontein. In 1981 he told ''The New York Times'': "I've got everything I want - except the franchise. And I'm not contented."<ref>Lelyveld, Joseph (6 March 1981). [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/06/world/south-africa-s-coloreds-are-unappeased-by-a-better-life-that-lacks-right-to-vote.html?searchResultPosition=15 SOUTH AFRICA'S 'COLOREDS' ARE UNAPPEASED BY A BETTER LIFE THAT LACKS RIGHT TO VOTE] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved on 9 February 2025</ref>

He was stabbed to death at his home in Cape Town in 1989, when he was 58 years old.<ref name=Blackpast /><ref>Stephen Gray, [http://mg.co.za/article/2013-10-04-00-richard-rive-biography-wheres-the-roistering-braggart "Richard Rive biography: Where's the roistering braggart?"] (review of ''Richard Rive: A Partial Biography'', by Shaun Viljoen; Wits University Press), ''Mail & Guardian'', 4 October 2013.</ref>

==Writing== Rive initially published his stories in South African magazines such as ''Drum'' and ''Fighting Talk''. His collection ''African Songs'' was published in 1963 by Seven Seas Books.<ref>[https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/African-Songs-Richard-Rive/B001QJ3ORK/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484652196&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=richad+rive+african+songs "African Songs"], Amazon.</ref> He edited anthologies for Heinemann's African Writers Series: the short story anthology ''Quartet'' (1963) - containing stories by Alex La Guma, James Matthews, Alf Wannenburgh and Rive himself - and the prose anthology ''Modern African Prose'' (1964). His short story "The Bench", for which he won a prize, is still anthologised. "The Bench" takes the well known story of Rosa Parks and sets it in South Africa. He also wrote three novels that were published in his lifetime. ''Emergency'' (1964) was set against the Sharpeville massacre. ''Buckingham Palace District Six'' was published in 1986 and turned into a musical by the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.<ref name=voice /> Rive also published an autobiography entitled ''Writing Black'' in 1981.<ref name=voice/>

Rive's last novel, ''Emergency Continued'', was completed two weeks before his death.<ref name=Blackpast />

==Honours== On 23 August 2013, at the Aziz Hassim Literary Awards held in Durban, Rive and two other esteemed South African authors, Ronnie Govender and Don Mattera, were honoured for their contributions to the fight against apartheid through literature.<ref>{{cite web|title=Literary awards for Struggle stalwarts|work=Daily News|url=http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/lifestyle/literary-awards-for-struggle-stalwarts-1.1565574|date=21 August 2013|accessdate=19 September 2013}}</ref> The authors all reflected on non-racial enclaves in South Africa during that era: Rive focused on District Six, Govender on Cato Manor, and Mattera on Sophiatown.

==Bibliography==

===Novels=== * ''Emergency'' (1964) * ''Buckingham Palace, District Six'' (1986) * ''Writing Black'' (1981) * ''Emergency Continued'' (1991)

===Short story collections=== * ''African Songs'' (1963) * ''Advance, Retreat : Selected Short Stories'' (1983)

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== * [http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/richard-rive "Richard Rive"], South African History Online * Shaun Viljoen, [http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/5681/Rive%20Final%20Corrected%20Consolidated%20pdf.pdf?sequence=1 "Richard Rive: A Skewed Biography"], PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 2006

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rive, Richard Moore}} Category:1989 deaths Category:1931 births Category:South African male short story writers Category:South African male novelists Category:South African murder victims Category:People murdered in South Africa Category:South African LGBTQ novelists Category:20th-century South African novelists Category:20th-century South African short story writers Category:20th-century South African male writers Category:Alumni of Trafalgar High School (Cape Town) Category:20th-century South African LGBTQ people Category:University of Cape Town alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Category:Deaths by stabbing in South Africa

Richard Rive

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