C. Louis Leipoldt

Dr C. Louis Leipoldt
Leipoldt c. 1915
Born	Christian Frederik Louis Leipoldt Worcester, Cape Province
Died	Cape Town
Resting place	Pakhuis Pass, Clanwilliam
Occupation	Poet
Language	Afrikaans
Nationality	South African
Literary movement	Second Afrikaans Movement

Dr. Christian Frederik Louis Leipoldt, usually referred to as C. Louis Leipoldt, (/ˈlaɪpɒlt/ 28 December 1880 – 12 April 1947) was a South African poet who wrote in Afrikaans. Together with Jan F. E. Celliers and J. D. du Toit, he was one of the leading figures in the poetry of the Second Afrikaans Movement. Apart from poetry, Leipoldt wrote novels, plays, stories, children's books, cookbooks and a travel diary. He is numbered amongst the greatest of the Afrikaner poets and he was described by D. J. Opperman, himself a noted South African poet, as "our most versatile artist".

Leipoldt was born in Worcester in the Cape Province, the son of a preacher, Christian Friedrich Leipoldt, of the NG Kerk in Clanwilliam and grandson of the Rhenish missionary, Johann Gottlieb Leipoldt, who founded Wupperthal in the Cederberg. His mother was Anna Meta Christiana Esselen, daughter of Louis Franz Esselen (1817–1893), another Rhenish missionary at Worcester. His early education was largely at home and for a while, during the Second Boer War, he was a reporter. Between 1902 and 1907, with funding from the botanist Harry Bolus, he read medicine at Guy's Hospital in London and travelled in Europe, America and the East Indies. At times his health was poor. For a period of some six months during 1908, he was the personal physician of the American newspaper magnate, Joseph Pulitzer, aboard Pulitzer's yacht.