Ernst Van Heerden

Writer, poet, author and literary critic Ernst van Heerden studied in Port Elizabeth and later in Amsterdam, but returned to South Africa at the outbreak of World War II. He then established himself as an university teacher and the leading poet in South Africa. He was also known as a collector of African art. Van Heerden was one of the earliest openly gay artists.

Van Heerden earned the silver medal with his Six Poems at the 1948 London Art Competitions in the category Literature, Lyric Works. An illness resulted in the amputation of both his legs in 1974, only seven years before he retired.