Ex Africa (1937)

This is a very good copy of a rarely found book from the 1930s.

The red cloth-boards, gilt to spine, are sunned at the top of the front cover and the spine but the spine logo and lettering are still clear (see image). The binding is firm and the book-block, tinted gold at the top edge and untrimmed at the bottom edge, is complete, unfoxed and sound. There is a bookseller sticker on the front paste-down and a violet stamp \"This volume is supplied for sale in the Dominions only\" on the back paste-down, but otherwise the plain endpapers are unmarked and unfoxed. The vii + 355 pp of text and index + frontispiece and 11 other inserted monochrome plates + folding map are all present and in better than very good condition.

The book makes vivid reading, from the opening \"I was born in the town of Smithfield, situated in the south-eastern part of the Orange Free State, at that time an independent Boer Republic\" through the history of the Griquas and how Adam Kok III acquired his tall hat and chapters including Hunting Expeditions, The Great Smallpox War, The Making of Johannesburg, The Road to the North, Rhodes\'s Third Private War and The Indaba of the Matopos.

The illustrations, too, are well chosen and include The Nachtmaal, Johannesburg in 1886 and To-day, The Author and a Rhinoceros, Boers on Commando and A Coach Travelling North.