Gustav preller eugene marais biography wife

English to afrikaans

His first published poems appeared in the Paarl District Advertiser in After leaving school he worked for some time as a clerk in an attorney's office and then as a journalist for the Transvaal Advertiser. In , at the age of 19, he became editor of the newspaper Land en Volk , in which he severely criticised the government and policies of President J.

Kruger of the South African Republic Transvaal. In he married Aletta Lettie Beyers, but she died the next year shortly after the birth of their son. Soon thereafter Marais was becoming addicted to opium later morphine. He left for England in December , studied law at the University of London, and also seems to have acquired some medical knowledge in Germany.

After his return to Pretoria Marais was again associated with Land en Volk of which he was an owner for some time, before selling the newspaper and moving to Johannesburg as an advocate in This proved unsuccessful and soon thereafter he settled on the farm Doornhoek in the Waterberg, where he held an appointment as mine doctor for some time. Later he moved to the farm Rietfontein, where he openly practiced as a medical doctor and also used hypnosis in his treatments.

Here he studied nature in his spare time, being a keen observer with strong conservationist tendencies. Two articles by him appeared in the Agricultural Journal of the Union of South Africa : 'Wild honey; with notes on the Moka bee' and 'Notes on some effects of extreme drought in Waterberg'