First edition published by J. L. van Schaik, Pretoria, 1934. The dust jacket is from a second impression copy, published in 1938.
Publisher's brown cloth binding with design on front panel and titles on spine.
182pp. Illustrated.
A rare first edition of the legendary Afrikaans author's groundbreaking work on the life of termites which is regarded as the forerunner of the hive mind or collective intelligence hypothesis. This work initially appeared periodically in the Afrikaans magazine Huisgenoot during the 1920's. The Belgian Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck translated this work into French and infamously published it under his own name. The original foreword (which I've added in the image box) not only gives a valuable insight into this controversy from Marais' own point of view, but is also to be admired for how he almost (although not quite!) succeeds in concealing his indignation.
Condition:
1.) Binding: Binding tight with no cloth or hinge splits. Cloth of the binding is clean with no markings or smudges. No fading of the titles on the front panel and spine.
2.) Text: Contents clean with white, fresh pages and no inscriptions apart from a neat former owner's name on front endpaper along with a laid down paper label recording provenance.
3.) Jacket: As mentioned above, the dust jacket is from a second impression, published in 1938. The jacket is complete with some mild age-associated wear and tear.
'As a scientific observer of nature, Eugène Marais offers us in DIE SIEL VAN DIE MIER (The Soul of the Ant) an exposition of his theory on the organic unity of the termite nest. To the uninitiated this working of the common soul of an anthill is as wonderful and mysterious as telepathy or any of the alleged workings of the human mind that lie on the border of the improbable. Not only for the entomologist, but also for the philosopher, psychologist and anyone who is searching for an origin of the soul, the book is of inestimable value.' - editor's note from the fifth impression
All in all a very good copy of one of the cornerstone works not only in Afrikaans literature, but also natural history.
- Jacket Condition: Good
- Binding Condition: Near Fine
- Size: 8vo
