Mafeking Road by Herman Charles Bosman

Mafeking Road (Anniversary Edition, Inscribed Copy, Second Impression)

Herman Charles Bosman's Marico Stories of Oom Schalk Lourens, in the Craig MacKenzie Edited Text

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Mafeking Road: and other stories: The Anniversary Edition
• Author: Herman Charles Bosman
• Editor: Craig MacKenzie
• Publisher: Human & Rousseau, Cape Town
• Publication Date: 1998
• ISBN-13: 9780798139021
• ISBN-10: 0798139021
• Edition Details: Anniversary Edition, 1998, edited by Craig MacKenzie. Second impression, 1999. Inscribed by a previous owner.
• Binding: Publisher's illustrated card wrappers with a black and grey photographic cover, perfect bound.
• Physical Format: Large softcover (trade paperback), approximately 235 x 155 mm. 151 pages.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Wraps: The illustrated wrappers show light surface wear to the front cover. The grey spine carries slight marking and light creasing. The corners are slightly rubbed and the cover edges show minor wear, consistent with a carefully read copy.
• Interior: The pages are clean and cream, with legible text and a tight binding. A small blue ink mark and a faint pencil mark appear on the page edge. No foxing is evident. Previous owner's inscription to the endpaper.
• Provenance: Handwritten inscription in blue ink on the endpaper: "Anne October 1999 "Another road" Love E."
• The Dust Jacket: Not Applicable (As Issued)

Synopsis & Historical Value

Mafeking Road and Other Stories is Herman Charles Bosman's celebrated collection of short stories set in the Groot Marico, told in the dry, digressive voice of the storyteller Oom Schalk Lourens. It was the first of Bosman's Oom Schalk collections to appear in book form, and it has been regarded as an important contribution to South African literature.

Humour, satire and irony run through the tales, which range across a wide span of human feeling, from folly and vanity to cruelty and tenderness. Bosman wrote in English but drew on the rhythms of Afrikaans speech, giving the stories their distinctive, unmistakable voice.

This Anniversary Edition presents the text edited by Craig MacKenzie, the first to derive from the original versions of the stories, with an introduction and notes on the texts. It suits readers and collectors of South African literature who want a scholarly text of a classic.

Author Profile: Herman Charles Bosman

Herman Charles Bosman (1905-1951) was born near Cape Town and wrote mainly in English, shaping it with the rhythms of Afrikaans speech. After a teaching post in the Marico district, he shot and killed his stepbrother in 1926 and was imprisoned. His death sentence was commuted to ten years, of which he served about four.

His prison memoir Cold Stone Jug appeared in 1949, and he also wrote the novel Jacaranda in the Night. He founded and edited the literary magazine The Touleier and was literary editor of South African Opinion and Trek. He died in 1951.

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