Africana Books

Ten Books that have had a great influence on me. Africana, though a fascinating genre which has occupied my reading habits for six decades, only occupies part of my Favourites Reading List. Here are my ten most influential, or beloved titles:

	An artefact
	A German 1742 Bible - a family heirloom with a host of indecipherable Gothic scribbles on the prelims. This was one of the books that captured my imagination even as a young boy when I used to page through, looking at the beautiful woodcuts. As I learnt a little of the world and its peoples, I did begin to wonder why the Palestinians of the year dot wore medieval clothing. The book has nothing to do with my faith or lack thereof, to me it is quintessentially an artifact – it epitomizes THE BOOK. Comfort – the old favourite, Kon Tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl – this was a book I got at about age 12. It fired my imagination, it was the ultimate escapism from the world, to be marooned on a raft thousands of kilometers out in the middle of an ocean; it had a happy ending when though wrecked on a reef, all hands were safe on a tropical island, surrounded by friendly people. I have read it almost once a year for my entire life, it is a haven when the whole world around me is hostile, cold and uncertain. Humour – the funniest book I have ever read – The River Why by David James Duncan – a relatively recent acquisition. This book is about fishing, a pastime I have been partial to. But that is not why I reread this book often and why I have given a copy to my son and brother-in-law (the latter was no fisherman). No, it is because this is one of those whacky bits of writing by a Yankee who can Bowdlerize his own tribe, who can paint such a vivid picture of a screamingly funny scenario that I still land up with tears streaming from my eyes and bellowing with mirth when I read it.
	Reference Essentials to lean on
	The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary - I am lucky in that English was my second language, so I learnt it properly ( unlike the lament “Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?) and I read voraciously. However, the moment I started to write, I became involved in using dictionaries; occasionally to check a spelling; often to determine the exact shade of meaning that I was after. Somewhere I saw an early, single volume edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, and this became an item of intense desirablility – but I never saw a copy of the 2 vol 3rd ed until recently at a preview of books at the Maynardville Fair. On that day I was not permitted to buy it, so I had to bribe an acquaintance to stand at the gates on opening day, to rush in and snatch the hefty set before anybody else could get at them. Encyclopaedia Brittannica – We are all probably old enough to remember the 1950’s edition, covered in Burgundy imitation leather, if I remember correctly. Well, I was marooned by dire family circumstances in a Hillbrow flat of a friend of the family at age 15 or thereabouts – for the duration of the winter holidays. I had no money to spend; it was freezing cold outside – but there was a set of Brittannicas. So I read them; from cover to cover, ignoring only subjects that really didn’t interest me. I have never regretted it, and once I was married and had children, a Brittannica salesman received a warm welcome at my door and I purchased my own (unfortunately) updated set. There are more American baseball players in it now, and less classical composers; I have found three mistakes of fact – but it is still treasured and used, sometimes several times a day. Carter’s ABC for Book Collectors – I’m on my third copy of that particular little book. The first I lent out and it never came back; the second copy I had for decades as a reference work for when I came across a term in a book description which I did not understand. The I started Africana Books and one of my clients persuaded me to part with it, so I bought my third copy. They are now getting increasingly difficult to find, as there is always a market for this handy little reference book which is a must for every collector.
	Africana Too...
	South African Bibliography up to 1925, and 1925-1950 - Most people consider Mendelssohn as the ultimate arbiter of South African bibliography, but his work mostly described his own collection (considerable though it was), one single edition per title, with whatever information he felt relevant (or knew) about contents or author. In addition his work contains nothing beyond 1910. While I have a very tired copy of his works (with most of the illustrations missing) I may consult them once or twice a year – but of much more use are the six volumes of the SA Bibliography to the year 1925, and the Retrospective SA National Bibliography 1926-1958, though the latter has less information, since it contains only books printed in the subcontinent. For me the former set is the most useful and both for my work and recreation, I consult it daily. Burchell - Epitome of Southern African Exploration. The bon voyageur and naturalist par exellence of the subcontinent; Burchell was a slight, sad, jilted young man who set off into the wilds of Africa to nurse a broken heart. He spent some four years collecting about 60 000 specimens, which he carefully preserved and later described. His descriptions of plant habitats are still of the greatest value to present-day botanists, and reprints of the only work he ever published on South Africa are still in high demand, as they should and do form the basis of any collection on Southern Africa. As first editions are hugely expensive at about $15000 I was lucky to obtain a wrecked copy recently, which I can enshrine, with all its faults, in my collection. It has many plates missing, numerous imperfections, and even part of some missing text on a page has been lovingly rewritten in ink, and there are plenty of marginalia in several different hands. All I hope for is that I may still be able to find some of the missing plates (as they do get sold separately on occasion) and that I can restore them to their rightful place. If nothing else, this book has character and speaks of thousands of miles of travels through the wilds. Levaillant – the (dubious) joys of exploration. I stumbled onto this flamboyant Frenchman at a relatively early age when I read Meiring’s The Truth in Masquerade, probably 35-40 years ago. Almost at the start of my collecting Namaqualandiana, I read a copy of his first travels, which took him along the southern Cape eastwards. I was absolutely enchanted by his carefree descriptions – always accepting that a certain amount of poetic license was being employed. To my delight, I managed to acquire his three volume set, in which he travels up to Namaqualand and Namibia in the original first English translation. However, as reading material goes, I must tell you that it isn’t a patch on his first work – one gets the feeling he was stretching out the agony of heat, thirst and heavy sand just a bit much so that he could make it into three volumes. The Rubayat of Omar Khayam - Poetry is not really my thing. There are poems I love, others leave me cold; I scribble a little myself, but I have no illusions about their worth. Yet at some impressionable age I was introduced to Omar Khayam – he of “The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on –“ and something of this Persian sage’s way with words, combined with Fitzgerald’s inspired translation touched me. Yet for most of my life I never owned my own copy, until a client offered me a beautifully leatherbound copy illustrated by Pogony. I was immediately attracted by the dreamy illustrations, by each individual motif on the border of each page. I fell in love with the book right there and then. In the meantime I had to put it on auction. The client and I agreed on a reserve and I offered it to the world at large. To my huge relief, the world at large ignored our offering (as there were some thousands of different copies and editions on sale worldwide at the time) and I put in a bid myself at the last moment. It is the only book that I have ever bought purely for its looks.

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