STANDARD ENCYLOPEDIA OF SOUTH AFRICA.

12 volumes, each volume comprises about 650 pages, 8vo (260 x 180 mm), illustrated throughout in colour and black & white, maps, brown cloth, each volume in original plastic protective sleeve. There is some insect scarring on the cloth of three of the volumes, light dust soiling on all the top edges and the plastic sleeves of volumes 1 & 3 are split. A good set. 

‘The Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa is not a general encyclopaedia like the Britannica, but a regional encyclopaedia like the Encylopaedia Canadiana and the Australian Encyclopaedia. The work is the final result of close collaboration between the editors and more than 1000 contributors. These include some who wrote only one article and others who wrote several hundred. Especially in the case of the scientific entries it was possible to obtain the co-operation of leading authorities, many of them scientists of international fame. Erudition in itself was, however, not the sole criterion used in finding contributors; many were selected in view of their close acquaintance with a person, locality or pastime, etc. Among the experts many are from the United States of America (especially in the fields of anthropology and palaeontology), Canada the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal.' Introduction.