Etienne Leroux
South African writer (1922–1989)
Etienne Leroux (born Stephanus Petrus Daniël le Roux; 13 June 1922 – 30 December 1989) was an Afrikaans writer and a member of the South African Sestigers literary movement.
Early life and career
Etienne Leroux was born in Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape on 13 June 1922 as Stephanus Petrus Daniël le Roux, son of Stephanus Petrus le Roux, a South African Minister of Agriculture. He studied law at Stellenbosch University (BA, LLB) and worked for a short time at a solicitor's office in Bloemfontein. From 1946 he farmed and lived as a writer on his farm in the Koffiefontein district. Etienne was a pupil at Grey College Bloemfontein where he matriculated.
An English translation of his 1964 novel Een vir Azazel (lit. "One for Azazel") was published in 1968 as One for the Devil. In his book review for One for the Devil, Graham Greene wrote: "His audience will be the audience that only a good writer can merit, an audience which assembles slowly from far away in ones and twos; while the big book club motorcoaches hurtle down the highway toward oblivion, the rumour spreads that here an addition will be found to the literature of our time."
Several of his books were banned by the government of South Africa.
He died on 30 December 1989, and was buried at the family church yard of Wamakersdrift, of which his farm formed part.
Bibliography
Die eerste lewe van Colet (1955)
Hilaria (1957)
Die mugu (1959)
Sewe dae by die Silbersteins (1962).
The public source identifies “Etienne Leroux” as south African writer (1922–1989). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Etienne, Leroux and South.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2747078. VIAF identifies the subject as 14881275. The Library of Congress control number is n79070103. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1989, 1946 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “Etienne Leroux” 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.