1.) KERSSNUITSELS (1962) - SIGNED 2.) DIE SESTIENDE KOPPIE (1965) & 3.) GESLAGSREGISTER VAN DIE FAMILIE VAN HEERDEN 1701-1968

Three books including the scarce two part autobiography of Petronella "Nel" van Heerden, South Africa's first Afrikaans female doctor, and her genealogy of the family Van Heerden.

1.) KERSSNUITSELS published in 1962.

156pp. Signed by the author on the title page. Van Heerden's signature is scarce.

2.) DIE SESTIENDE KOPPIE published in 1965.

159pp. Some tape ghosts on endpapers and achievement bookplate of Mariental Highschool (Namibia) on front endpaper. Contents clean.

3.) GESLAGSREGISTER VAN DIE FAMILIE VAN HEERDEN 1701-1968

First edition, A. A. Balkema, Kaapstad, 1969.

Publisher's green cloth binding with gilt titles to front panel and spine.

iv + 463pp. Text in Afrikaans.

Binding sound. Contents clean. A fine copy.

Dr. Petronella van Heerden was born in 1887 and grew up in the Free State. Her father was a judge in the Free State Republic and a member of the Government during the Anglo-Boer War. After matriculating she went to the Netherlands on a bursary to study medicine, which conflicted with all the conventions of the period. She qualified as a doctor in 1915 and was the first Afrikaans female to do so. After practising for five years as a doctor in Harrismith she returned to Amsterdam to specialise in gynaecology. Her doctoral thesis, published in 1923, was the first one in the medical field that was written in Afrikaans.

She was openly homosexual and was romantically involved with Gladys Steyn, the daughter of President M. T. Steyn.