Publisher's red cloth hardcover binding with gilt titles to front panel and spine.
248pp. Illustrated with 4 "photo art plates" and numerous black & white photographs in text.
Binding sound. Contents clean. An unusually well-preserved copy!
Men, Mines and Millions was an "authorized" biography of Sir J. B. Robinson and an elaborate production. He was never a popular character, despite being one of the most important mining entrepreneurs in the early days on the diamond and gold fields. Louis Cohen in his scandalous book Reminiscences of Kimberley had the following to say:
"Beit was very little heard of, Rhodes was digging in De Beers, Robinson had a diamond office in the main street, where, dour and sour, he sat waiting for customers."
"Robinson was never popular with anybody in Kimberley. He had no personality, no magnetism, but resembled a mortal who had a tombstone on his soul. As for charity, nobody ever connected his name with that, for he belonged to those kind of folks who are ready enough to act Samaritan if it costs them nothing."
"Notwithstanding that he looked cold as a fish, there is no denying his admiration for the fair sex in those salad days. But surely languorous love could hardly be expected to take up its abode in his uninviting heart and body, and if he did run after the petticoats that's no proof of love."
"No doubt, we will meet again, Sir J. B. Robinson; in the meantime, I do not know how to say anything more affectionate than that I wish you may be always what you are."
Cohen and Robinson did afterwards meet again, in court, and Cohen spent two years in jail for criminal libel.
(I have listed a copy of Cohen's Reminiscences of Kimberley on this auction)
Contents include:
Early days, The River Diggings, The Beginning of Kimberley, Mayor of Kimberley and Candidate for Parliament, Parliament and the I.D.B. Act, The Rand Discovered, Early days on the Rand, Johannesburg and London, The Jameson Raid and After, The Robinson Bank - The Industrial Concession - The Policy of Drift, The Boer War, Responsible Government and Chinese Labour, From Union, The Flag Question - Conclusion.
- Binding Condition: Near Fine
- Overall Condition: Near Fine
- Size: 4to.
