Three Years War (1902)

The story of the rapid writing and publication of the original De Wet manuscript in Nederlands is told in the book in Lot 228. This lot is the English translation, which was published in the same year as the original. The Afrikaans version may have been the last to have been translated (in 159: see Lot 311).

Especally in its English version, the book is too well known to require much description. This copy, from Constable\'s first edition of 1902, with its engraved sepia frontispiece portrait of General de Wet, was issued for the publisher\'s Indian and Colonial Library. A signature and date are on the verso of the frontispiece.

The red cloth covers, black to front and spine, are damaged at the head and foot of the faded spine, with the loss of material. The binding is tight and still fully functional. The plain endpapers are a little spotted at the front with a small tear at the lower spine and a small red stain from the cover. The back free endpaper is torn out but present. Next to it, the 12-panel monochrome folding map of South Africa is complete and still bound in but torn at one of the folds. The 520 pp of text, appendixes and index are complete, unmarked and undiscoloured.