PATRICIA (SCARCE NOVEL BY JOHANNA BRANDT (BEST KNOWN FOR HER BOER WAR INVOLVEMENT) - INSCRIBED COPY

Exceedingly scarce 2 Vol. novel by Johanna Brandt (of Petticoat Commando fame) written under the pseudonym of Marcus Romondt. From the library of Percival Bishop (bibliophile and author of the important book on South African Bookplates) with his bookplate on the pastedown of each volume and inscribed by Brandt on the ffep. of Vol.2 "to my friend D.C.B". She has also appended her name under that of Romondt on the title page of Vol.2. An amazingly fresh - near fine set of this almost 100 year old work in the original blue cloth. Laid in to Vol. 1 are i) an autograph postcard and ii) an autograph letter, both from Johanna Brandt to Percival Bishop. There is also laid in a small browned newspaper clipping from the Cape Times of Jan.24th. 1964 regarding the funeral of Dr. Johanna Brandt. This clipping refers to her writings and mentions Patricia amongst them.

History. This same copy was sold by me on Antiquarian Auction 21, almost 10 years ago, for $368. It has now resurfaced and I have the pleasure of offering it for sale once again. On Antiquarian Auction 85, I sold a copy of Brandt's important Boer War book, The Petticoat Commando, inscribed to "Mr Boonzaier" and also with the ex-libris of Percival Bishop. It is interesting to speculate that i) the 'D.C.B' and 'Mr Boonzaier' in question might well have been D.C. Boonzaier, the cartoonist and father of artist Gregoire, but I am unable to confirm this -  and ii) that Percival Bishop subsequently acquired these books from the estate of Boonzaier. I have not come accross another copy of this work on the Antiquarian book market. 

Johanna Brandt (18 November 1876 in Heidelberg, South African Republic – 13 January 1964 in Newlands, Cape Town) was a South African propagandist of Afrikaner nationalism, spy during the Boer War, prophet and writer on controversial health subjects. At the start of the Second Boer War in 1899, Johanna volunteered along with three of her brothers. She served as a nurse until the British captured Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal. The Boers did not immediately surrender, however, and a long guerrilla war began. It was during this second phase of the Boer War that Brandt, who was living in Pretoria, became active for the Boer cause. She organised women to spy on British officers and hid prisoners who were on the run. It was her actions that led to W. T. Stead running an article in the Review of Reviews about the appalling conditions in the Irene Concentration Camp, which contributed to a decline in British public support for the war. After the war she wrote her own account of the Irene Concentration Camp, but her most well-known book was The Petticoat Commando, which told of her and her mother's exploits during the Boer War. The book is dedicated to her mother, "As a peace offering for having brought her into publicity in direct opposition to her wishes". (Wikipedia) Patricia is an historical romance set in South Africa in the first half of the nineteenth century.