Cry, the Beloved Country Resources

This biography gives some detail about Alan Paton's post-Cry political activities as well as the controversies he has inspired among both white conservative and black radical South Africans.

Here is Oprah's (honestly, much more sentimental) biography of Alan Paton.

This adaptation was directed by Zoltan Korda who, in addition to having an awesome name, was also well known in Hollywood as a liberal director. Sidney Poitier, the great African-American film star who gave us such classics about racial division in the United States as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and In the Heat of the Night (1967), plays Msimangu.

This version stars James Earl Jones as Stephen Kumalo and Richard Harris as James Jarvis. Let us put this another way: it stars the voice of Darth Vader as Kumalo and old Dumbledore from the first two Harry Potter movies as Jarvis. Watch it. Now.

All of Paton's unfinished manuscripts and papers have been collected at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Paton was born in the capital city of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, so it makes sense that his widow donated all of his materials to that university.

Thank you, Youtube!

Here is the man himself, in his own words.

This does not look like the face of a man who tells a lot of jokes. But to be fair, he's obviously thinking about a lot of serious and horrible things …