Donald Alasdair Calum Maclennan (9 December 1929 – 9 February 2009) was a South African poet, critic, playwright and English professor.

He published a number of plays, short stories, collections of poems and scholarly works.

Born on 9 December 1929, in London, England, Maclennan came to South Africa as a child in 1938. He was educated atWitwatersrand University andEdinburgh University.^[1]

Maclennan's academic career included lecturing atWits University and theUniversity of Cape Town.^[2] He taught in both South Africa and the United States.^[3] He began teaching atRhodes University in 1966, teaching English there for more than 40 years,^[2] although he officially retired in 1994. In later years, he continued to teach at the university, giving weekly seminars for another decade.^[4]

In his final years, he self-published a number of works of poetry.^[4] In his last decade, Maclennan had motor-neuron disease. He suffered a stroke in January 2009, although his mind was not affected by it. He died on 9 February 2009, inPort Elizabeth.^[2]

Years link to corresponding "[year] in poetry" article for poetry; for literature, to corresponding "[year] in literature" article:

• 1971:In Memoriam Oskar Wolberheim, A.A. Balkema, combining Maclennan's poetry and the music ofNorbert Nowotny^[1]
• 1977:Life Songs, Bateleur Press^[1]
• Bateleur Poets,ISBN 978-0-620-02281-1^[5]
• 1983:Reckonings,^[1] New Africa Books,ISBN 978-0-908396-95-5^[6]
• 1988:Collecting Darkness, Justified Press,ISBN 978-0-9474510-3-5^[1]
• 1992:Letters: New Poems, Carrefour Press,ISBN 978-0-9583178-7-0^[7]
• 1995:The Poetry Lesson: New Poems^[1] Snailpress,ISBN 978-1-874923-25-1^[8]
• 1997:Solstice: Poems,ISBN 978-1-874923-40-4,^[9] winner of South Africa's Sanlam Literary Award for 1997^[1]
• 1998:Of Women and Some Men^[1] with George Coutouvidis, Firfield Poetry Press,ISBN 978-1-875058-16-7^[10]
• 2001:
  • Notes from a Rhenish Mission,^[1] Firfield Press,ISBN 978-1-875058-17-4^[11]
  • A Brief History of Madness in the Eastern Cape, with drawings bySiddis Firfield,^[1] Firfield Press,ISBN 978-1-875058-17-4^[1]
• 2002:Rock paintings at Salem, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2002:The Road to Kromdraai,^[1] Publisher Snailpress,ISBN 978-1-874923-63-3^[12]
• 2003:The Dinner Party, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2003:A Letter to William Blake, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2003:Under Compassberg, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2004:Excavations,^[1] self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2005:Reading the Signs, Carapace
• 2006:The necessary salt, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2006:Selected Poems, Quartz Press
• 2007:The owl of Minerva, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2008:Through a Glass Darkly, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2010:Dress Rehearsal, self-published, Rhodes University GSU
• 2012:Collected Poems, Print Matters Heritage Press (ed. Dan Wylie)ISBN 978-0-987009562

• An Enquiry into the Voyage of the Santiago, a play^[4]
• Job Mava, a play, written and performed in 1972/3 by The Ikhwezi Players, published 1981/2^[4]
• My Childhood, adaptation of Maxim Gorky's play, performed in 1975 by The Ikhwezi Players^[4]
• 2004: Editor, with Malcolm Hacksley,A Ruthless Fidelity: Collected Poems of Douglas Livingstone,^[1] publisher: Ad Donker,ISBN 978-0-86852-232-6^[13]
• Olive Schreiner and After: Essays on Southern African Literature in Honour of Guy Butler^[1] Publisher: D. Philip,ISBN 978-0-908396-92-4^[14]
• Sarah Christie, Don Maclennan, Geoffrey Hutchings,Perspectives on South African Fiction, Publisher Ad. Donker,ISBN 978-0-949937-74-2^[15]

• 1929 births
• 2009 deaths
• 21st-century South African poets
• Academic staff of Rhodes University
• 20th-century South African poets
• South African male poets
• 20th-century South African male writers
• 21st-century South African male writers

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• Articles with dead external links from December 2016
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• Use South African English from May 2012
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