Rhdesiana Reprint Library (Gold Series, 1968 to 1974, complete in 36 volumes)

A. INTRODUCTION

This is a Very Good set overall of one of the most valuable collections of Africana reprints published in the past fifty years - the enterprising and academic series of 36 volumes published at two-monthly intervals by Books of Rhodesia between 1966 and 1974. The images show the dustjackets of all the volumes; these were mainly commissioned from several artists. The series is almost unparalleled for the authority of the introductions and the valuable additional photographs and other material they contain. Vols 32, 34 and 35 provide excellent examples. The introduction to Vol 36 summarises the scope of the series - which extends well beyond the boundaries of the then Rhodesias - and explains how  later volumes, some with anthropological and natural history themes, augment the travel, exploration, hunting and mining coverage of the earlier volumes.  

B. GENERAL NOTES

• In the list below, the years 1966-1974 refer to the year in which each of the facsimile volumes was published. 1974 reprint refers to year Vols 1 and 2 were reprinted.
• All the titles in the series have new publisher's notes and other material.
• All have new 2-4-colour dustjackets (djs) and new endpapers.
• All the original illustrations and maps are included in the reprints - even tissue guards and publishers' lists where these were in the original edition.
• All the volumes are complete, unsigned and otherwise unmarked.
• The overall condition varies from Fair to Good (F-G) to G (G), Very Good (VG), Near Fine (NF) and Fine (F). Brief reasons are given.

3. THE VOLUMES IN THE SET

1. Thomas Baines. The Gold Regions of S E Africa. 1974 reprint. F-G: stained dj, early and late leaves foxed. Sepia frontispiece and 2 other plates. xxiv + 187 pp of text and itineraries + 50 pp of advertisements + inserted folded facsimile of 4 pp letter from Livingstone to Baines. 
2. Frederick Courteney Selous. Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia. 1974 reprint. G: light early foxing. Frontispiece and 9 other inserted illustrations. xxx + 290 pp of text and index + inserted 2-fold map + 6 pp of (Roland Ward) publisher's list.
3. Stanley Portal Hyatt. The Old Transport Road. 1969. VG: dj edge-rubbed, boards and contents fine. Frontispiece and 11 other inserted plates. 301 pp.
4. George Pauling. The Chronicles of a Contractor. 1969. VG: endpapers lightly sunned. New 6-fold colour map, frontispiece and 40 other inserted plates. 264 pp of text and 9 new appendixes.
5. J Theodore Bent. The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland. 1969. VG rubbed dj folds. Frontispiece and several other plates numbered with the text. xxix + 427 pp of profusely bw-illustrated text and indes + 32 pp of publisher's list.
6. Cullen Gouldsbury. Rhodesian Rhymes. 1969. G+ edge-chipped dj, early and late staining and foxing. Frontispiece and 11 pp of inserted plates, 264 pp of text, including 7 additional poems. 
7. Lord Randolph Churchill. Men, Mines & Animals in South Africa. 1969. VG. Frontispiece and 29 other inserted illustrations + xvi + 330 pp of b/w-illustrated text + 8-fold colour map.
8. Rose Blennerhasset and Lucy Sleeman. Adventures in Mashonaland. 1969. F. 28 inserted illustrations + xii + 340 pp of text + 8 pp publisher's list.
9. C E Finlayson. A Nobody in Mashonaland. 1970. NF: lightly sunned endpapers. Sepia frontispiece, xv + 330 pp.
10. Thomas Morgan Thomas. Eleven Years in Central South Africa. 1970. VG. Frontispiece portrait with tissue guard, 418 pp + inserted 6-fold map and numerous illustrations. 
11. Sheila Macdonald. Sally in Rhodesia. 1970. F-G: early and late leaves stained and foxed. Frontispiece with additional material. Frontispiece + 207 pp of text + 11 inserted b/w plates.
12. William Harvey Brown. On the South African Frontier. 1970. VG early leaves lightly foxed. Additional material includes tipped-in frontispiece, appendixes and new plates. Frontispiece and 30 pp of inserted illustrations + xxiii + 430 pp of text and index + 4-fold and 6-fold colour maps at the back.
13. Bishop G W H Knight-Bruce. Memories of Mashonaland. 1970. VG. 8-fold colour map at front, frontispiece with tissue guard + 242 pp + 6 pp publisher's list..
14. Frederick Courteney Selous. A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa. 1970. VG. Frontispiece with additional material. Frontispiece and 455 pp of text and index + 18 inserted monochrome plates.
15. Herbert Nassau Hemans. The Log of a Native Commissioner. 1971. NF. Frontispiece with new material. Tissue-guarded frontispiece + 7 pp of inserted plates + 224 pp of text and index + 2-fold map.
16. J G Macdonald. Rhodes. A Life. 1971. F. Frontispiece with tissue guard and 11 pp of other inserted illusrations, 3 pp of inserted facsimile letters and two inserted colour maps + 403 pp of text and index.
17. W A Wills and L T Collingridge. The Downfall of Lobengula. 1971. VG: stain to front endpaper fold, stain to last few leaves (mainly advertisement pages). Chapters contributed by other authors, including Selous and Rider Haggard. Frontispiece and other inserted plates + 4 multifold 2-colour plans + xiv pp including errata slip + 347 pp of text and index + 6 pp publisher's list. 
18. Melina Rorke. Her Amazing Experiences in the Stormy Nineties of South Africa's Story. Told by herself. 1971. VG. Frontispiece and 25 other inserted illustrations. 285 pp of text. Very interesting biographical note on the dustjacket.
19. Ethel Tawse Jollie. The Real Rhodesia. 1971. NF. [The title-page records that the author (Mrs Archibald Colquhoun by her first marriage) was the first woman to be elected to a legislative assembly in the British Dominions.] Frontispiece and 24 pp of inserted illustrations. xvi + 305 pp of text and appendixes + 3-fold map.
20. Lt-Colonel E A H Alderson. With the Mounted Infantry and the Matabele Field Force 1896. 1971. NF. Frontispiece and 11 inserted illustrations + xvi + 308 pp of text and index + 40 pp Methuen list.
21. Frank W Sykes. With Plumer in Matabeleland. 1972. NF. Frontispiece with tissue guard and 34 other inserted plates + viii + 296 pp of text and appendix + 6-fold colour map + 24 pp publisher's list.
22. J P R Wallis. One Man's Hand. The Story of Sir Charles Coghland and the Liberation of Southern Rhodesia. 1972. G+. Frontispiece and 1 other inserted plate. xvi + 254 pp of text and index. 
23. R N Hall and W G Neal. The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia (Monotapae Imperium). 1972. G+: some dj chips, front endpaper foxed, map fine. Frontispiece with tissue-guard "with over seventy illustrations, maps and plans" and 24-fold 2-colour map at he back. xlviii + 404 pp of text, notes, appendix and index + 40 pp publisher's list.
24. Lt-Colonel Frank Johnson. Great Days. The Autobiography of an Empire Pioneer. 1972. NF. Frontispiece + 14 pp of inserted illustrations + xix + 366 pp of text, appendixes and index + 2 maps (on on back endpaper).
25. Frederick Courteney Selous. Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa. 1972. F. Reproduction of a colour painting of the author on the dj. Frontispiece with tissue guard + 22 pp of inserted illustrations + 40 illustrations in the text +  503 pp of text and index + 6 pp Rowland Ward publishing list.
26. Percy M Clark. The Autobiography of an Old Drifter. 1972. NF. Frontispiece with tissue guard + 32 pp of inserted photographs by the author + 272 pp of text.
27. Hans Sauer. Ex Africa . . . 1973, VG. Frontispiece and 11 other inserted photographs + 336 pp of text and index. 
28. Edward Mohr. To the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi. Translated from the German by N D'Anvers. 1973. VG: ownership name on front free endpaper. Frontispiece with tissue guard + 3-fold colour map + 4 chromolithographs with tissue guards + 11 inserted woodcuts + 462 pp of text and index.
29. William Finaughty. The Recollections of an Elephant Hunter 1864-1875. 1973. G: staining to early and late leaves. Frontispiece + 8 pp of inserted illustrations [viii] + sketch- map + 244 pp of text and index. 
30. Hugh Marshall Hole. The Jameson Raid. 1973. VG. New long introduction with four new plates. Frontispiece + 7 inserted illustrations + viii + 304 pp of text, appendixes and index.
31. H F Varian. Some African Milestones. 1973. VG. Map of new and earlier railways on endpapers. Frontispiece + 22 inserted illustrations (which include a unique photograph of the Victoria Falls, taken from a temporary suspended walkway) + xv + 272 pp of text, appendixes and index.
32. Major Arthur Glyn Leonard. How We Made Rhodesia. 1973. VG. Map of route of Pioneer Column on endpapers. Publisher's advertisement for earlier book by the author opposite the title-page. 16 pp of inserted plates, mainly portraits + x + 364 pp of text and index.
33. Colonel Joseph Garbett Wood. Through Matabeleland. Frontispiece + 1888 4-fold map + several other inserted maps and plates not listed in the contents + 198 pp of text and appendixes.  
34. Kingsley Fairbridge. His Life and Verse. 1974. NF. Fairbridge was one of Southern Africa's true geniuses: no schooling after the age of 11 but despite that a Rhodes scholar and so many achievements in Africa and Australia, founding schools and promoting education generally, before his early death at age 39. This reprint is derived from two sources: the first the author's autobiography and the second a volume of his poetry. Frontispiece and 16 other inserted pp of plates. Part 1: xi + 246 pp of text and appendix. Part 2: vii + 118 pp of text.
35. Lionel Decle. Three Years in Savage Africa. 1974. G+. The original includes a 20 pp introduction by Henry Morton Stanley. 6-fold colour map + 4 other inserted folding maps + 1 other map and 100 illustrations in the text from the author's originals + xxxii + 594 pp of text and index. 
36. D C de Waal. With Rhodes in Mashonaland. 1974. (Translated from the original Dutch.) F. Plastic protected dustjacket. Extensive introductory material. Frontispiece + 19 other inserted illustrations + xix + 356 pp of text and index.