born March 24, 1855, Wittebergen, Cape Colony
died Dec. 11, 1920, Cape Town, S.Af.
South African writer.
She had no formal education but read widely, developing a powerful intellect and militantly feminist and liberal views. After working as a governess she published (as Ralph Iron) the semiautobiographical The Story of an African Farm (1883). The first great South African novel, it concerns a girl living on an isolated farm in the veld who struggles to attain independence in the face of rigid Boer social conventions. Her later works include Trooper Peter Halkett of Mashonaland (1897), attacking Cecil Rhodes , and Woman and Labour (1911), an acclaimed bible of the women's movement.