Andries Gerhardus Visser | |
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| Born | (1879-03-01)1 March 1879 Fraserburg district,Cape Colony |
| Died | 10 June 1929(1929-06-10) (aged 50) |
| Occupation | Physician, poet |
| Nationality | South African |
Andries Gerhardus Visser (1 March 1878 – 10 June 1929) was a well-known earlyAfrikaans poet. He was popularly known as the "Singer of theSuikerbosrand".
Visser was born on the farm Zaaifontein in theFraserburg district ofCape Colony. An intense drought drove his parents from their farm inCarnarvon and he was born in a tent in the farmyard, under the shadow of a pear tree. He attended school in Dal Josafat at the same time as two other notable writers,Totius andD. F. Malherbe.
He received teacher's training at Normal College inCape Town, then studied medicine inEdinburgh, Scotland, from 1901 to 1906. He worked as a medical doctor in Carnarvon (1906–1909),Steytlerville (1909–1916) andHeidelberg (1916–1929). He became close friends with the poetEugene Marais while in Heidelberg. He was aSouth African Freemason.[1]He married twice; in 1913 with Lettie Conradie, who died in 1920, and again in 1927 with Marie de Villiers. He died on 10 June 1929.
Visser was already published at eighteen inOns Kleintji. His work is not regarded as part of theEerste Taalbeweging, rather as the part of the poetry from the period until 1930.
He twice won the prestigiousHertzog Prize for literature, for both his first and second anthologies.
His verse is notably simple and musical, making use of traditional verse forms such as therondeel, intertextual references and techniques such as the switching of idioms, epigrams and spellings.
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