Newsletter 142
Dear Collector African tribes have recently received much publicity through two films. Protestors in Port Elizabeth and East London, the major population centres of the Xhosa-speaking world, stopped the launch of Inxeba (The Wound). They maintained that the film misrepresents Xhosa initiation. Less controversial has been the screening of Black Panther, which has broken box …
Newsletter 141
Dear Collector We will call our tale The Two Doctors. As a child growing up in South Africa in the early 1970s, it was thrilling to receive glimpses of the world enjoyed by other kids in the English-speaking world. In particular, the local library had on its shelves the Target novelisations of the adventures of …
Newsletter 140
Dear Collector Holiday season is upon us! What an exciting time of year this is, as families head off to the bush, the mountains, and the seaside, the concerns of the year behind them. It’s time to refresh one’s mind and body. If you are at all recognisable, your vacation wiIl be infinitely more enjoyable …
Newsletter 139
Dear Collector Highlights of this month’s list include two antique maps of Africa, a complete set of the Van Riebeeck Society’s First Series (with all the particularly elusive volumes), a number of James Walton books on indigenous architecture, several works on South African maritime history, and some titles on the topical subject of water-supply in …
Newsletter 138
Dear Collector This month’s newsletter features several highlights. These include a Congo mission imprint from the early twentieth century (#1: Malexena ma Nkana mu Ncemi), outstanding works on South African indigenous architecture, a large section on Cape local history, the sought-after Johannes Meintjes monograph on the photography of Ambrose Lomax (#37: Portrait of a South African Village), a …
Shelf Tour 3
Dear Collector Question: What do Cleopatra, the Brontë sisters, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Sherlock Holmes, Paul Kruger, Gandhi, Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas and Salvador Dali have in common? Answer: They all feature in this month’s Shelf Tour list. This Month at Christison Rare Books # 138 is due out later this month, but for …
Newsletter 137
Dear Collector The fires that recently ravaged our region, notably the Garden Route and Thornhill areas, affected several of our friends. In some cases, their homes were lost, their very lives threatened. When all one’s worldly objects become ashes within minutes, life itself is revealed as a most wonderful possession. Survivors of disasters often manifest contentment …
Newsletter 136
Dear Collector It was while cataloguing several of his books that we learned of the death, earlier this month, of South African polymath Karel Schoeman. There has been widespread consternation at the loss of such a towering scholar who, although exceedingly private, was by all accounts very kind to those he knew and trusted. In …