Publisher's brown cloth binding with design on front panel and titles on spine. Publisher's original beige dust jacket with cover illustration of a termite.
182pp. Illustrated.
A rare first edition of the legendary Afrikaans author's groundbreaking work on the life of termites which is regarded as the forerunner of the hive mind or collective intelligence hypothesis. This work initially appeared periodically in the Afrikaans magazine Huisgenoot during the 1920's. The Belgian Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck translated this work into French and infamously published it under his own name. The original foreword (which I've added in the image box) not only gives a valuable insight into this controversy from Marais' own point of view, but is also to be admired for how he almost succeeds in concealing his indignation.
Condition:
1.) Binding: Binding tight with no cloth or hinge splits. Cloth of the binding is clean with no markings or smudges. No fading of the titles on the front panel and spine.
2.) Text: Contents clean with white, fresh pages and no inscriptions, apart from a.) an unfortunate modern home-manufactured bookplate pasted over an authentic contemporary gift inscription on front endpaper, and b.) a small rectangular stamp on rear endpaper.
3.) Jacket: White square label at the bottom corner of the front panel of dust jacket. Mild age-associated edge wear.
Apart from these minor blemishes this remains an uncommonly fresh and unused copy of one of the cornerstone works not only in Afrikaans literature, but also natural history.
- Jacket Condition: Very Good
- Binding Condition: Very Good
- Sold By: Rare Paper
- Contact Person: Armandt Marais
- Country: South Africa
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone: 0741235861
- Preferred Payment Methods: EFT, Bank Deposit. For International Customers: Paypal with 6% surcharge, International Transfer
- Trade Associations: A. A. Approved
