Better than they knew - Edited by R.M de Villiers - Vol 1 and 2

Dedication/Gift letter in front of the book(Volume 1)that was signed by the Author Mervyn Whitmore Richards, one of the 11 contributing Authors in the first volume.

Better than they knew - Edited by R.M de Villiers

Vol 1 and 2

Edition: First editions

Published: 1972/74

Publishers: Purnell

SBN numbers 360001629 and 360002781.

Condition: Hardcover and dust jacket in very good condition – covered in a protective plastic jacket. Minor shelf wear on the edges of the hardcover. Internally very clean and tightly bound.

An anthology of insightful biographies of some remarkable Soth Africans of yesteryear, who deserve to be remembered. A treasure of South African History. 

The South Africa of today is the product of yesterday's work, genius and devotion of men and women of all creeds, castes and colours. This book outlines part of the particular contribution made by English-speaking men and women, primarily in the twentieth century. It does so by telling the personal stories of individuals who have made a mark in their own sphere-in government, science, literature, mining, education, theater, commerce, human relations, the preservation of wild life, and in the field of sport generally. It is an absorbing tale of achievement, often against great odds, and adds a new dimension to the stirring history of modern South Africa. Each chapter has been contributed by an authority in his own field, the writers including personalities like Arthur Bleksley, A. P. Cartwright, Edgar Brookes, Pat Storrar, Whitmore Richards,  Davie Marquard and more. The books have been edited by a former Editor of The Star, Rene de Villiers, who points out in his introduction that without the contribution of the English speaking community South Africa today would have been a poorer country, materially and morally, artistically and politically. 'Those to whom the torch has been handed down', he writes, 'will, at the peril of their souls, forget the contribution made to South Africa by the liberal spirit which is the glory of the English tradition.' It is just over a century and a half ago that the first major wave of immigrants of British descent landed on these shores. They brought with them, as this book points out, the habits of free men which were handed down to succeeding generations of Anglo-Saxons as they became South Africans. Once they had made their mark in the forbidding if not inhospitable countryside between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, they and their influence spread to the four corners of their new fatherland. It is fitting, therefore, that this tribute to the tremendous contribution they made to South Africa should appear on the morrow of the celebrations held to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the 1820 Settlers in Algoa Bay.