THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN FARM. A Novel, by Ralph Iron

First edition in 2 volumes: I. vi + (i) glossary + (iii) + 326 , II, vi + 318 pages, original pictorial olive green cloth - the cloth is dull and is chipped at the top and bottom of the spines and the corners are worn, what were likely to have been library labels have been removed from the upper covers leaving light marks, the bindings are loose, book plate of James Hamilton Russell on each front free endpaper, occasional finger-soiling in the text, leaf 9/10 in volume I torn at the base and simply repaired with tape, top corner of leaf 113/4 in volume II missing without loss of text.

After a couple of rejections, Olive Schreiner submitted her manuscript of 'The Story of an African Farm' to Chapman and Hall whose reader was the novelist George Meredith. He was impressed but undecided, 'The African Farm has far more merit than any of the above (the two other manuscripts he read that week). I am compelled to retain it, having no further time to do the work justice, and with a view that the publication of it would not pay. The strong interest seems wanting, though the picturing is good.' Chapman promised their final opinion within a week of their meeting with Olive. She felt very hopeful, though during the second interview flew into a rage at Frederic Chapman's

suggestion that she should add a few sentences to make Lyndall marry her Stranger in secret, otherwise 'the British public would think it wicked, and Smiths, the railway booksellers, would not put in on their stall! Olive described the incident to Havelock Ellis some thirty years later; then, she said, she told Chapman to 'leave the book alone or she would take it elsewhere. He climbed down at once.' (quoted in 'Olive Schreiner' by Ruth First & Ann Scott). So it seems that the publisher thought the book a rather risky venture and put out a small edition to test the market. As a new impression was required after only six months it is likely that the first edition might have been as small as 500 copies. '...her book was finally accepted in the middle of 1882 by Chapman and Hall. Its publication in 1883 under the pseudonym of Ralph Iron was something of a literary sensation and brought her into contact with a widening circle of poets and writers,...(Olive Schreiner Letters, Volume I: 1871 - 1899, Edited by Richard Rive).