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

Adam Small was born in 1936 in Wellington, South Africa. He attended the University of Cape Town where he studied languages and philosophy. He went on to receive a master's degree in philosophy from the same university, and studied at the University of London and the University of Oxford as well. He worked as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Fort Hare in 1959, and in 1960 he was one of the academic founders of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where he was appointed as Head of the Philosophy Department. In the 1970s, he joined the Black Consciousness Movement. In 1973, after the suspension of students protesting against apartheid, he resigned from his position at the university in solidarity with the students. In 1983, he re-joined the university under considerably different circumstances as Head of the Department of Social Work, holding this position until his retirement in 1997. He is the author of several books of poetry in Afrikaans and English. He died in 2016.