Herman Charles Bosman As I Knew Him by Bernard Sachs

Herman Charles Bosman As I Knew Him (Bosman Memoir with Trek Anthology, 1971 in Jacket)

A Friend's Intimate Memoir of South Africa's Master Storyteller, with an Anthology from S.A. Opinion and Trek

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Herman Charles Bosman As I Knew Him: S. A. Opinion - Trek Anthology
• Author: Bernard Sachs
• Editor: Bernard Sachs
• Publisher: The Dial Press, Johannesburg
• Publication Date: 1971
• Edition Details: Dial Press edition, Johannesburg, 1971. Memoir of Herman Charles Bosman together with the S.A. Opinion and Trek anthology.
• Binding: Publisher's blue cloth boards with printed pictorial dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Octavo, approximately 215 x 140 mm, 272 pages. Illustrated.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: The blue cloth boards are clean, with some light scuffing and rubbing marks and minor fading streaks. Spine ends and corners appear fairly sound. The page edges are toned.
• Interior: The text pages are clean and legible with no markings. The binding is tight and the endpapers are clean. The page edges are toned and yellowed.
• The Dust Jacket: Present, and protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover. The pictorial jacket shows wear: the head of the spine is chipped and torn with some loss of paper, with small losses at the top edge of the back panel and chipping and nicks at the spine foot and corners. There is creasing, rubbing, spotting and soiling to the front panel and spine, and toning to the flaps. The front carries a photograph of Bosman at 25 and the back a painting of his second wife Ella by Donald Harris.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Herman Charles Bosman As I Knew Him is the memoir of the celebrated South African writer Herman Charles Bosman, written by his close friend Bernard Sachs. The friendship began when the two were schoolboys at Jeppe High and lasted, with occasional interruptions, until Bosman's death in 1951. The memoir began as an essay of around 80 pages in The South African Opinion at the time of Bosman's death, and was later gathered into this 1971 volume.

It is regarded as one of the most important sources on Bosman's life, and it vividly captures the flavour of Johannesburg's pre-war Bohemian underground.

The volume is completed by an anthology of pieces from the magazines S.A. Opinion and Trek, with contributions from writers including Alan Paton, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, Nicholas Monsarrat and S.G. Millin. It is a desirable companion for collectors of Bosman and of South African literary history.

Author Profile: Bernard Sachs

Bernard Sachs (1905-1985) was a South African journalist, historian and author. He worked as a journalist and leader writer for the South African Jewish Times, and was the founding editor of South African Opinion and later of Trek.

Besides his memoir of Bosman, he wrote the novel The Utmost Sail (1955), based on Bosman's life, South African Personalities and Places (1959), The Road to Sharpeville (1961), Personalities and Places: Second Series (1965) and the autobiography Mist of Memory.

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