Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #132 begins on 09 Jul 2026

Bryant (Alfred Thomas)

HANDWRITTEN LETTER BY THE AUTHOR OF "OLDEN TIMES IN ZULULAND AND NATAL" REGARDING THE SCARCITY OF ONE OF HIS PAMPHLETS

Published: 1939

Reserve: $70

Approximately:

Estimate: $90

Bidding opens: 9 Jul 16:30 GMT

Bidding closes: 16 Jul 16:30 GMT

Ships from: South Africa

Lot 57 preview

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"17 Hillside Road, Harpenden England, 27/2/39

Dear Sir,

First of all please excuse the present scrawl in pencil, I am at present lying on my back in bed in a Nursing Home with a broken leg (motor accident), where writing with pen & ink is difficult.

I frequently get requests for my ancient pamphlet on Zulu Foodstuffs, but alas! am never able to meet them, seeing that I possess now only one single copy of the thing. It was published originally for and at the cost of, the Natal Govt. Native Affairs Department, and there used to be a number of copies in the cupboard of the Chief Commissioner (then 'Secretary") for Native Affairs, P.M.B. (Pietermaritzburg). I don't know whether they are still there! or stored away on some long forgotten shelf. Enquire anyway, the cream of the contents I later on incorporated in a larger work on The Zulu People Before the White Man Came : Their Physical & Social Life, which I have been trying, in vain, for several years to get printed. There seem some good prospects, however, now that the work will someday (!) be printed by a small Catholic mission-press in Swaziland; but I cannot say when! Much of life I find, is wasted in vain Dreams & futile hopes. I trust this is not going to turn out another of them! Ever yours, A. T. Bryant."



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