KIMBERLEY: TURBULENT CITY (1976) - from the library of diamond mining magnate HARRY OPPENHEIMER who wrote the foreword

Publisher's de luxe quarter leather binding. Limited to 150 numbered copies signed by the author. This copy is number 2.

x + 413pp. Illustrated with black & white photographs.

Binding tight. Contents clean. Front bottom corner bumped. 

This copy has the bookplate of South African diamond mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer (1908-2000) on the front paste down. Oppenheimer was the chairman of Anglo American Corporation and of De Beers Consolidated Mines. In his lifetime he was ranked as one of the wealthiest people in the world. Oppenheimer wrote the foreword to this book (see image box). The bookplate bears the library's cancellation stamp, suggesting that there was a duplicate copy in their holdings (probably copy #1 as this is #2). The book is no. 7206, indicating that by 1976 Oppenheimer had around that many books in his library.

The author's well-researched history of one of South Africa's most extraordinary cities. Tracing the turbulent and fascinating history of the town from the days before the discovery of diamonds to the early 1970's. Kimberley, or the Diamond City, can rightfully be described as the womb of modern industrial Africa.