SOME ARACHNIDS AT HANOVER, CAPE COLONY [1903] - inscribed by the author to Mrs. J. A. Hobson

A very scarce pamphlet on spiders in the Cape Colony by Samuel Cron Cronwright Schreiner, the husband of Olive Schreiner.

This copy is inscribed on the front endpaper, "Mrs. J. A. Hobson, from S.C.C.S., Hanover C.C. (Cape Colony), 12 Jan '03."

It is quite a significant dedication as Mrs J. A. Hobson was the wife of:

'John Atkinson Hobson (1858 - 1940), a British economist, sociologist and social theorist who wrote many influential works, with various conceptual language developed by him (under-consumption, the unemployed, marginal productivity) passing into common parlance. His work on the causes of the South African War and regarding the theorization of imperialism are particularly notable, with the latter an influence on Lenin’s theory of imperialism. Both bear more than the traces of him being influenced by Olive Schreiner, with his The War in South Africa containing an interview with her; and they shared an analytical emphasis on the role of external international finance organizations in underpinning the particularly ruthless style of 'local' southern African capitalism in its imperialist phase.

During the South African War, Schreiner and Hobson met up when he was the Manchester Guardian's representative in South Africa, although on his arrival she wrote about him to Isie Smuts as someone who was a 'great friend from England', so they are likely to have met around the publication of Schreiner’s anti-Rhodes Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland in London in 1897. Certainly he was the main contact point for Cronwright-Schreiner’s anti-war speaking tour of Britain in 1900 (devolved to him because Schreiner was too unwell), and Schreiner passed on his name to others in her political circles, including the Smutses. It is very likely that there was a correspondence between Schreiner and Hobson, although no extant letters have been traced.' - from www.oliveschreiner.org (Olive Schreiner Letters Online)

Samuel Cron Cronwright (1863-1936) was a farmer, politician, author and biographer of his wife Olive Schreiner, author of The Story of an African Farm. After his marriage to Olive he changed his surname to the hyphenated Cronwright-Schreiner, which would even today be regarded as progressive. They settled in De Aar in 1907 and remained there until Olive's death in 1920, after which he moved to Cape Town. His biographical writings on his wife are significant, although his manner of approach was controversial as he destroyed letters which he deemed unimportant and published letters and writings which Olive expressly stated in her will should never be made public.