01 Nadine Gordimer – Place of Birth

On 20 November 1923 in a place called Springs, an East Rand mining town just outside Johannesburg, Isidore and Hannah Myers Gordimer were blessed with a daughter whom they named Nadine. Isidore was a Jewish immigrant watchmaker from Lithuania and Hannah was Catholic. Nadine went to a Catholic Convent school but was largely home bound as a child because her mother feared that she had a weak heart and would not be safe at school. Being home and isolated, Nadine developed a passion for writing at an early age and had her first stories published while she was still very young. The story, ‘Come again tomorrow’, was published in 1937 when she was only 15 years old. ​