On offer: book written to be seen not read

This article was taken from Business Day on 17 April 2015.

The Antiquarian online auction, which started yesterday at www.antiquarianauctions.com, is offering a book that “was never written to be read but to be seen”.

This is how author Graeme Greene describes The Third Man in the preface to the book.

Accordingly, the book is dedicated to Carol Reed, the director of the film of the book, which is now regarded as a classic.

The movie, released in 1949, is also regarded as a classic and “is frequently listed as one of the best movies of all time”.

According to Wikipedia, British novelist Greene is seen as “one of the great writers of the last century”.

He wrote serious Catholic novels and thrillers, or entertainments, as he called them.

In the novel Harry Lime (played by Orson Welles in the film) is a black marketer, “who diluted penicillin he stole from military hospitals and sold it on the black market, killing many in post war Vienna”.

The 4 answers website believes The Third Man “was not originally written as a novel but as an extended treatment and then a script for an excellent movie”.

Greene originally wanted the hero to be English, but the American backers of the film demanded an American star, which necessitated changing the story slightly to make the hero (Joseph Cotten) a writer of pulp westerns.

The publisher was William Heinemann, London. This is the first edition and the jacket’s condition is fair. The binding condition id very good and the reserve is $50.

A West Pointer with the Boers, signed by the author JYF Blake, commander of the Irish volunteers who fought with the Boers in the Anglo Boer War, is on sale.

It is the personal narrative of Col John Young Fillmore Blake of his experience during the war.

Blake was born in 1856 in Missouri and graduated from West Point in June 1880, after which he was appointed second lieutenant to the 6th US Cavalry stationed in Arizona.

The book is the first edition, published in 1903 by the Angel Guardian Press, Boston.

It is inscribed by the author as follows: “For D.J. Callahan, my good old school friend and comrade in the African wars in years long gone by with the best wishes of...The Author JYF Blake”, Dated 18 Aug 1902.

According to Wikipedia, Blake was a “freedom fighter and lecturer, (and) an ardent advocate of resistance to British imperialism”.
There are many black and white pictures, a dedication in front “to the memory of the 22,000 Boer women and children murdered in the Englishprison camps of SA during the Anglo Boer War 1899-1902”.

According the Wikipedia, Blake was the commander of Irish volunteers fighting on the side of the Boer republics in the Anglo Boer War.
He received a hero’s welcome when he returned to the Us, where he embarked on a lecture tour.

“Blake’s memoir of conceived as a highly critical expose of the motives and actions of Great Britain, particularly in its support of Cecil Rhodes”.

Blake was found dead in his home in Harlem, New York, on January 24 1907. Some believe his death was accidental, others suspected suicide.

Historical Simon’s Town: Vignettes, Reminiscences and Illustrations of the Harbour and Community is a history of the harbour from the days of the Dutch East Africa Company and of the Royal Navy of the Cape. The book gives definitive history of this early town, with good reference to the Royal Navy and its buildings. According to A History of Fish Hoek 1818-1968, “the behaviour of the sailors represented an ever present factor in the policy of the authorities”, eventually leading to a mutiny in 1798 not long after the mutiny of the Spithead and Nore.

Much of unruliness of the sailors was attributed to strong liquor. The authorities blamed “the presence of taps and alehouses on the long road from Table Bay to False Bay (which) delayed the homecoming of seaman to their ships”.

The book is in very good, clean condition, with some minor shelf wear along the top and bottom edges. This edition was published by AA Balkema, Cape Town, in 1976. The overall condition is good to very good, with a reserve of $40.

Other titles on offer in the auction include A Voyage to Cochinchina in the Years 1792 & 1793. It is the first edition, and was printed for T Cadell and W Davies, in London in 1806.

It contains a general view of the valuable productions and the political importance of the flourishing kingdom, and also of such European settlements visited on the Voyage, with sketches of the manners, character, and condition of their several inhabitants. The estimate is $3,000-$4,000.

Other lots on the sale include:
• A collection of 57 black –and-white photo negatives of South African forces in German South West Africa during the First World War. The estimate is $2,000.
• A facsimile copy of S Daniell’s African Scenery and Animals, the proceeds to be donated to Unesco.
This is a facsimile reprint of the large folio of aquatint plates, first published in 1804-1805 with an introduction and notes by Frank Bradlow and signed by him.