Die Diamantführenden Gesteine Südafrikas - Wagner's doctoral thesis and FIRST book (1909)

Three-quarter leather binding with cloth panels.

xviii + 207pp. Two illustrated plates at rear with maps, tables, diagrams etc. in text.

Contains a tipped-in hand-written compliments slip from the drafter of the manuscript (not Wagner) as well as a photograph of Wagner on the half-title page. Internally clean. Binding tight although part of the leather strip on the spine is missing.

Percy Albert Wagner (1885-1929) was a South African geologist born in the Karoo town of Richmond. Both his parents were of German origin.

He matriculated through the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1902 and continued his studies at the South African School of Mines. After being awarded both the Diploma in Mining Engineering and the degree Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Mining Engineering Wagner proceeded to Germany where he continued his studies at the Royal Mining Academy of Saxony at Freiberg. Here he was awarded the degree Doctor of Engineering (D.Ing) in 1909 for his thesis titled Studien an den diamantführenden Gesteinen Südafrikas (Studies of the diamond-bearing rocks of South Africa) and it was published that same year as a book with the slightly different title Die Diamantführenden Gesteine Südafrikas (Berlin, 1909, 207pp). The published work has an added pps 133-207 which is not found in the dissertation.

This was his very first published book and, according to SABIB, was later greatly enlarged as an English edition titled The Diamond Fields of Southern Africa (Johannesburg, 1914, 347pp). The English edition was the most thorough and comprehensive study of the geology of the country's diamond mines at the time and has since become a classic which was reprinted in facsimile in 1971.

Wagner's first book is scarce.