CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY (1948)

First edition, first impression of the author's classic first work.

Publisher's beige cloth binding with brown titles on front panel and spine. The dust jacket is from a slightly later 1949 impression.

Binding tight with short cloth splits at the spine crown. Light foxing on front endpaper, contents otherwise clean. The very first owner of this copy wrote her name neatly at the top of the front paste down (see image). The later dust jacket is complete although with some age-associated wear and tear.

'In Cry, The Beloved Country a black reverend from rural Ndotsheni, an ancestral home of South Africa's Zulus, searches for his wayward son in hostile, unfamiliar Johannesburg. He finds his son - sentenced to death by hanging for murdering a white man during an attempted robbery in his own house. By a twist of fate, the murdered man was Arthus Jarvis - a dedicated fighter for blacks' equality. This story of the reverend's hopes for a restoration of tribal customs and family unity in South Africa and peace for all men, regardless of race, is as timely today as when it was written in 1948.'