Books for auction include the tale of a canine able seaman

This article was taken from the Business Day on 24 May 2013.

The only book by a South African author to be plagiarised by a Nobel laureate, and one written by a British was correspondent who missed out on the greatest scoop in the Anglo-Boer War, will be on offer in an online auction held by Antiquarian Book Auctions, at www.antiquarianauctions.com starting on Thursday next week.

The South of the White Ant, by Eugene Marais, was plagiarised by Belgian Maurice Maeterlinck, who won a Nobel Prize for a similar work in Flemish. On offer is a first edition of the book in English, published by Methuen & Company (London, 1937), which has a reserve price of $250.

Another book by Marais, an English translation of his classic essays on baboons, is on off too. This first English language edition, published by Methuen, has a reserved price of $200.

Unofficial Dispatches, by Edgar Wallace, contains many lively and humorous sketched of the Anglo-Boer War. According to Goodbye Dolly Gray, by Rayne, the press had been barred from Vereeniging discussions between Boer leaders on the question of surrender.
Wallace kept passing the meeting place by train after arranging with one of the soldiers on guard to signal the result of the meeting to him by means of coloured handkerchiefs. When he saw the soldier blow his nose with a white handkerchief, it meant the Boers had decided to surrender.

He immediately cabled a coded message to his paper, the Daily Mail, to get the message to London before the government received the news, but the next day was Sunday and the Daily Mail did not appear on Sundays. Thus Wallace “was robbed of a world scoop”. The book has a reserve price of $75.

With Lord Methuen in South Africa, by Hs Gaskell, is a medical man’s notes on his participation in the campaigns of Gen Paul Methuen. Gen Methuen, “who continued to serve his country with unabated constancy”, was in command at Tweebosch, in the Western Transvaal, where Gen Koos de la Rey inflicted the biggest defeat the British suffered in the guerrilla war, and which was the last major skirmish of the war, nearly 200 men were killed and 600 taken prisoner. Gen Methuen was badly wounded and Gen de la Rey arranged for him to be taken to the nearest British hospital.

It was a serious setback to the British and it is said the Lord Kitchener, who was expecting the war to come to an end, collapsed when he heard the news.

This first edition, published by Henry J Drane (London, 1906), has a reserve price of $200.

More unusual are the 11 lose plates from volume four of R Marloth’s Flora of South Africa.

Just Nuisance, The True Story of an Able Seaman Who Led a Dog’s Life, by Leslie M Steyn, is the account of the famous Jus Nuisance, A Great Dane enlisted “Able Seaman” at the Simon’s Town naval base. It is one of the most intriguing stories in the history of the Royal Navy.

It is said that Just Nuisance would go into the pubs with the sailors and escort the inebriated back to base. Once the ratings aboard a Royal Navy ship about to depart enticed Just Nuisance on board. Bu he jumped overboard when the ship was some distance out at sea and swam back to Simon’s Town. He never recovered wholly from the effects of the ordeal, which was the main cause of his subsequent death.

He was buried with full military honours and a volley was fired over his grave by a guard of honour. The book is revised and enlarged edition published by Spectrum Publishing (Johannesburg, 1968) and has a reserve price of $40.