Sheila Gordon (January 22, 1927, in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa – 2013) was an American writer who was born in South Africa. She wrote, among various other publications, '' Waiting for the Rain'', '' The Middle of Somewhere'', and '' Unfinished Business''. '' Waiting for the Rain'' tells the story of two boys growing up on a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

in South Africa during the

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

era. The friendship between the two boys dissipates as they grow older because one of them, who is black, seeks political equality, while the other boy, who is white, wants everything to stay the same. Sheila lived in Cobble Hill, a small neighborhood in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

for over fifty years. She died on May 10, 2013, at the age of 86. Her husband of over 60 years, Harley Gordon, died three months later on August 8, 2013. They were survived by their three children and five grandchildren.

External links

Interview
* 1927 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American novelists American young adult novelists American women novelists South African women novelists 20th-century American women writers People from Cobble Hill, Brooklyn South African emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women {{US-novelist-1920s-stub