Paton << PAY tuhn >>, Alan (1903-1988), was a South African author, social critic, and educator who wrote about the tragic consequences of rigid racial segregation. He became best known for his novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948). The book tells of a struggle for human dignity amid racial conflicts in South Africa’s gold mines, shantytowns, and law courts. Too Late the Phalarope (1953) is a novel about a sexual encounter between a white man and a Black woman, then forbidden by South African law. Tales from a Troubled Land (1961) is a collection of short stories.
Paton, who was white, wrote several nonfiction books about South Africa’s racial problems. He also wrote two autobiographies, Towards the Mountain (1980) and Journey Continued (1988).
Alan Stewart Paton was born on Jan. 11, 1903, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He became principal of the Diepkloof Reformatory for African boys, near Johannesburg, in 1935. He left in 1948 after instituting many reforms. Paton was a founder of what became the Liberal Party, an organization dedicated to attaining racial freedom through nonviolent means in South Africa. He died on April 12, 1988.
