Butler, Guy (1918-2001), was a South African poet and dramatist. Butler strongly opposed the South African government’s policy of apartheid (racial separation) up to the 1990’s. He sought to promote the synthesis of African and European elements through his writing.
Frederick Guy Butler was born on Jan. 21, 1918, in Cradock, in what is now the province of Eastern Cape. During World War II (1939-1945), when he fought in North Africa and Italy, he began writing poetry. He studied at Oxford University in the United Kingdom after the war, later returning to South Africa, where he joined the teaching staff of Rhodes University, in Grahamstown. At the university, he studied the diaries of colonial settlers and prepared them for publication. Butler was influential in promoting South African literature in English as an academic subject. He also continued to write poetry and became increasingly involved in the theater. He edited New Coin, an influential journal of contemporary verse. In 1953, his first play, The Dam, won a prize at the Van Riebeeck Festival, a major international arts festival in South Africa.
Butler’s poetry can sometimes be radical in its use of meter, rhyme, and imagery. Much of his work shows that he was torn between his South African roots and his love for Europe. Much of Butler’s finest poetry appears in such verse dramas as The Dove Returns (1956), Cape Charade (1968), and Take Root or Die (1970). In Pilgrimage to Dias Cross (1987), he wrote a long meditative poem about racial conflict. Butler also coedited with Jeff Opland a collection called The Magic Tree (1989). The book was a collection of 119 narrative poems translated from a number of South African languages.
Butler wrote three volumes of autobiography: Karoo Morning (1977) recalls his earliest childhood memories of South Africa; Bursting World (1983) tells of his student experiences and war service; and A Local Habitation (1991) brings the story of his life up to 1990. Butler’s Selected Poems, a representative collection of his work, first appeared in 1975. A revised and enlarged edition was published in 1989. Butler’s Essays and Lectures 1949-1991 appeared in 1994. He died on April 26, 2001.
