# Richard Rive

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{{Short description|South African writer and academic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox writer  <!--For more information, see [:Template:Infobox Writer/doc](/source/%3ATemplate%3AInfobox_Writer%2Fdoc).-->
| name = Richard Moore Rive
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| birth_date =  {{birth date |1931|03|01|df=yes}} 
| birth_place = [Cape Town](/source/Cape_Town), [Union of South Africa](/source/Union_of_South_Africa)
| death_date =  {{death date and age|1989|06|04|1931|03|01|df=yes}}
| death_place = [Cape Town](/source/Cape_Town), South Africa
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| education = [Trafalgar High School](/source/Trafalgar_High_School_(Cape_Town))
| alma_mater = [University of Cape Town](/source/University_of_Cape_Town)<br /> [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University)<br />[Magdalen College, Oxford University](/source/Magdalen_College%2C_Oxford_University)
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| notableworks = 'Buckingham Palace', District Six
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'''Richard Moore Rive''' (1 March 1931 – 4 June 1989) was a South African writer and academic, who was from [Cape Town](/source/Cape_Town).

==Biography==
Rive was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in the working-class [Coloured](/source/Coloured) residential area [District Six](/source/District_Six%2C_Cape_Town) of [Cape Town](/source/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](/source/apartheid). Rive went to St Mark's Primary School and [Trafalgar High School](/source/Trafalgar_High_School_(Cape_Town)),<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](/source/Hewat_College_of_Education) in [Athlone](/source/Athlone%2C_Cape_Town), where he qualified as a teacher. He was a prominent sportsman (a South African [hurdles](/source/hurdles) champion while a student) and a school sports administrator.

He acquired a [BA degree](/source/BA_degree) from the [University of Cape Town](/source/University_of_Cape_Town) in 1962. In 1963 he was given a scholarship organised by [Es'kia Mphahlele](/source/Es'kia_Mphahlele), the editor of ''[Drum](/source/Drum_(South_African_magazine))'' 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](/source/Fulbright_scholarship). He earned an MA degree (1966) from [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) in the [United States](/source/United_States), and a [Ph.D.](/source/Ph.D.) from [Oxford University](/source/Oxford_University) (1974).<ref name=Bookrags /> His doctoral thesis on [Olive Schreiner](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Kraaifontein). In 1981 he told ''[The New York Times](/source/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](/source/Heinemann_(publisher))'s [African Writers Series](/source/African_Writers_Series): the short story anthology ''Quartet'' (1963) - containing stories by [Alex La Guma](/source/Alex_La_Guma), [James Matthews](/source/James_Matthews_(writer)), [Alf Wannenburgh](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Sharpeville_massacre). ''Buckingham Palace District Six'' was published in 1986 and turned into a musical by the [Baxter Theatre](/source/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](/source/Durban), Rive and two other esteemed South African authors, [Ronnie Govender](/source/Ronnie_Govender) and [Don Mattera](/source/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](/source/Cato_Manor), and Mattera on [Sophiatown](/source/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](/source/University_of_the_Witwatersrand), 2006

{{Authority control}}

{{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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Richard Rive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rive) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rive?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.