Peter Blum en die Commonwealth Mycological Institute: van digter tot abstraheerde

Abstract

It is known that the acclaimed Afrikaans poet Peter Blum was employed by the Commonwealth Mycological Institute (CMI) in London for a number of years after his sudden departure from South Africa in 1960. Blum was, however, unwilling to disclose the nature of his work at that fungal research institute to correspondents in South Africa, and what precisely he as a literator occupied himself with at the CMI has remained a mystery. Even J.C. Kannemeyer, in his authoritative biographical work Wat het geword van Peter Blum? (What happened to Peter Blum?), and in his later Briewe van Peter Blum (Letters of Peter Blum) could shed no further light on this aspect of Blum's life. It has now become known that Blum was employed as an abstractor for the CMI's abstract journals, Review of Applied Mycology and Review of Medical and Veterinary Mycology, from 1961 to 1967. A possible example of Blum's work as an abstractor is referred to and the reason for his termination of service at the CMI is contemplated.