Peter Blum
Italian emigre poet and librarian (1925-1990)
Peter Emil Julius Blum (4 May 1925 – 5 December 1990) was an Afrikaans poet. As a child, he emigrated to the Union of South Africa with his family. From an early age Blum was already able to speak several languages, including German and Italian.
After studying literature at the University of Cape Town and at the University of Stellenbosch, he took up a position as a librarian in Cape Town and, later, in Kroonstad in the Orange Free State. Blum married Henrietta Cecilia Smit (born 3 November 1911, died 2002 in Worthing, Sussex, UK), a South African art teacher, in 1955.
His success as a poet was first affirmed in 1956 when he won the Reina Prinsen Geerligs Prize for his volume Steenbok tot poolsee (the title being a reference to the Tropic of Capricorn and the southern Antarctic Ocean, relating to the geographical location of South and Southern Africa).
Blum was twice denied South African citizenship. Kannemeyer (1993) speculates that citizenship was denied because of Blum's vociferous opposition to the ruling National Party's policy of apartheid.
Frustrated by this turn of events, Blum and his wife left South Africa to resettle in the suburb of Hounslow in London.
During his imprisonment between 1975 and 1982, Breyten Breytenbach wrote the poem, Ballade van ontroue bemindes ("Ballade of Unfaithful Lovers").
The public source identifies “Peter Blum” as italian emigre poet and librarian (1925-1990). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Peter, Blum and Italian.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q439901. VIAF identifies the subject as 34539198. The Library of Congress control number is n94094976. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1990, 1911 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Peter Blum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.