The families of Afrikaner poet NP Van Wyk Louw and his brother WEG Louw have turned to the Cape High Court to prevent the public from getting hold of a book of letters between the two brothers.
They claim that the letters the two brothers had written to each other between 1936 and 1939 were private and showed that the authors entertained racist and anti-Jewish thoughts. The letters also contained the "k-word".
Herman Giliomee, one of the evaluators of the manuscript, commented that if the letters were published, they would be "the death knell for the Louws' reputation" and could therefore do enormous damage to Afrikaans and to Afrikaans literature.
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He said the letters were "crawling" with positive images about Nazis.
The children allege in court papers that they had a duty of care for the literary heritage of NP Van Wyk Louw, and also that they would continue to earn an income from it only as long as it remained viable.
They also claim the letters were never meant for publication.
Although copies of the book have already been distributed to bookshops, the stores have given an undertaking not to sell any.
The author of the book, Ek Ken Jou Goed Genoeg, is JC Kannemeyer, a Stellenbosch University academic knowledgeable in the literature of NP Van Wyk Louw.
NP Van Wyk Louw died in 1970 and his brother in 1980.
In his will, NP Van Wyk Louw bequeathed his assets, including his personal documents, to his wife.
But copyright on all his writings was bequeathed to a trust which had to distribute all royalties among his children or grandchildren.
WEG Louw bequeathed all his personal and literary documents, manuscripts and letters to the Carnegie Library of the University of Stellenbosch for safekeeping.
But the balance of his estate, including all copyright to his work, was bequeathed to his children.
In October 1974 (after his death), NP Van Wyk Louw's children and their mother signed an agreement with the administrator of the trust, in which it was agreed to hand over all documents to the University of Stellenbosch on loan.
However, this did not mean that the university had copyright, they alleged.
After the children had read the book and consulted with the family, they refused permission for the publication of the letters in April last year.
However, they claim that they suddenly learnt in February this year that the letters had been published and the book distributed.
They have now asked the court to interdict the publishers from publishing, distributing, marketing or selling the book.
But Frans Stassen, of the publishing company Protea Boekhuis, denied in an opposing affidavit that the letters were confidential and said any student at Stellenbosch University or anywhere in the world, for that matter, could ask for access to the letters.
He said the contents of the correspondence had become part of the public domain.
In addition, he said the publication of the correspondence formed part of an academic programme at the university and that permission was not required.
The case continues.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on March 24, 2005
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