A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

Mr. Francis Carey Slater, the South African poet, died on Tuesday at the age of 84, our Cape Town Correspondent reports. He was born in the Cape and educated privately at Lovedale. He joined the staff of the Standard Bank in 1899 and retired from the management of its Grahamstown branch in 1930. His poetry began to appear in 1905 and a selected edition with biographical introduction by Sir Robert Ensor was published by the Oxford University Press in 1947. Some of the poems in the book were obviously derivative, but others had force and originality from their blend of romantic, stoic, and satiric strains. He was deeply moved by the great themes of nature, character, and race in his native country. His Collected Poems was published last year. In 1925 he made an anthology, The Centenary Book of South African Verse, and his verse had appeared in The Times Literary Supplement.