Non-literary activities
Coetzee was a key figure in the establishment of Oak Tree Press's First Chapter Series in 2006.[97] The series produces limited-edition signed works by literary greats to raise money for the child victims and orphans of the African HIV/AIDS crisis.[98]
Personal identity and public image
Coetzee has mentioned a number of literary figures who, like him, have tried "to transcend their national and historical contexts": Rainer Maria Rilke, Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Zbigniew Herbert—outsiders to Western culture who moved countries and/or wrote in different languages.[27] He has said, "as a child, as a young man, as a student, I had absolutely no doubt that access to the English language was liberating me from the narrow world view of the Afrikaner", and "I have a good command of English, spoken and written, but more and more it feels to me like the kind of command that a foreigner might have".[29] He has written about his feeling of being an "outsider", such as his experience of being a colonial when living in London, which he writes about in Youth, and characters in his novels have sometimes been outsiders.[14]
On 6 March 2006, Coetzee became an Australian citizen,[24][99] and it has been argued that his "acquired 'Australianness' is deliberately adopted and stressed" by Australians.[68]
Coetzee is generally reluctant to speak about himself and his work, but has written about himself in several autobiographical novels (Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime).[14] He has been described as reclusive, avoiding publicity to such an extent that he did not collect either of his two Booker Prizes in person.[75][100] The South African writer Rian Malan, in oft-quoted words from an article published in the New Statesman in 1999, called Coetzee "a man of almost monkish self-discipline and dedication", and reported—based on hearsay—that he rarely laughed or even spoke.[101][102] Asked about these comments in an email interview, Coetzee replied: "I have met Rian Malan only once in my life. He does not know me and is not qualified to talk about my character".[103][104]
Family
Coetzee married Philippa Jubber in 1963.[105] They divorced in 1980.[5] They had a son, Nicolas (born 1966), and a daughter, Gisela (born 1968).[105] Nicolas died in 1989 at the age of 23 after accidentally falling from the balcony of his Johannesburg apartment.[5][105][106][107][108][109]
Coetzee's younger brother, the journalist David Coetzee, died in 2010.[110]
His partner, Dorothy Driver, is an academic at the University of Adelaide.[12][25]
