The Anglo-Boer War. Vicissitudes of a Transvaal Dorp. Klerksdorp
Klerksdorp, Printed and Published by H.M. Guest, 'Mining Record' Office, 31 July 1901 (second edition)/ June 1901 (the date 31 May appears at the end of the section on the 'Second British Occupation' in the second edition).
Octavo, 45, [3] ('The Town Guard', 'Local Boer Losses', publisher's advertisements) pages.
Tan hessian-patterned decorated wrappers; rear cover a little marked; small hole punched in the top left-hand corner of the entire pamphlet; trifling signs of use and age; an excellent copy.
'Second Edition' appears on the front wrapper, page [5] is 'Some Press Notices' of the first edition, and page [34] is a lengthy 'Addendum to the Second Edition'. The short introduction states that the 'information is derived from Diaries kept by residents, the personal communications of Dutch and English people who remained during the War, and the details of the first British occupation from some of the principal actors'. The list of Klerksdorpians on active service with the British forces runs to four pages. In 1939, Herman Guest, the publisher's son, had some of these original Klerksdorp printings bound up and issued with a new foreword, telling the story of the production of his father's 'records of the campaign in the Western Transvaal and elsewhere. It will be realized that the accounts were written during times of stress, and consequently some of the statements have an "ex parte" complexion. The[ir] value ... lies in the fact that [they were] written and produced when Klerksdorp was practically in a state of siege. The inhabitants were unable to proceed a mile in any direction from the market square, and the one railway line, although closely guarded, was frequently disturbed by Boers'. Provenance: a Western Australian member of the 4th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse.
Item #121033
Price (AUD):
$400.00