Here is an authority on Afrikaans Literature who has published books on the history of Afrikaans literature and biographies of writers.

John Christoffel (J.C.) Kannemeyer grew up in and attended school in Robertson. He studied at Stellenbosch University where he obtained a DLit under the supervision of D.J. Opperman in 1964. His thesis was entitled Die stem in die literêre kunswerk.

In 1962 he joined the University of Cape Town as lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch. Later he lectured at RAU (the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit) and Stellenbosch University.

During 1976 - 1983 Kannemeyer took care of the editor's secretariat of the literary magazine Standpunte. He was professor in Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1982-1987. He then worked as senior researcher at the H.S.R.C. in Pretoria.

In September 1992 Prof Kannemeyer returned to Stellenbosch as an independent researcher and author. He is a visiting lecturer and researcher at the universities of Nijmegen, Amsterdam and Leuven and is a member of the Dutch Literary Society (Maatschappij der Nederlandse letterkunde). Since 2004 he is Extraordinary Professor of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University.
Presently he is working on a revised and updated version of "Die Afrikaanse literatuur".

In 1993, John Kannemeyer, with Wium van Zyl, began to organise literary tours.