This lot comprises four original issues in the original wraps of the important and scarce South African literary magazine Voorslag. Accompanying these issues are two original typed letters signed on Voorslag letterheads to a Mr L. Caplan, acknowledging receipt of an article submitted for possible publication and the second rejecting and returning it. The first letter is signed by Maurice Webb (as Editor - see below). Also included are a handful or very browned and friable July 1926 press cuttings (see below for comment). The issues in this lot are:
- Vol.1 No.2 - July 1926. (When Roy Campbell, William Plomer & Laurens van der Post were still the Editorial Board). Containing two articles by Campbell and one each by Plomer and van der Post.
- Vol. 1 No. 4 - September 1926.
- Vol. 1 No.7 - December 1926. Containing articles by Pauline Smith and others.
- Vol.1 No. 11 - May - July 1927 (The last issue).
Condition: The oversized wraps are a little frayed at the edges as is inevitable in this series. However, all four issues are tightly bound, clean, unmarked and without foxing. A very good set. The two letters have some mild edge fraying and tears and the folded press cuttings are browned, friable and a bit frayed.
Voorslag was a short-lived but highly influential South African literary magazine founded in 1926 by writers Roy Campbell, William Plomer, and Laurens van der Post. The prominent South African novelist
Sarah Gertrude Millin played a crucial role in its historical reception by writing a famous, highly critical review of its first issue.Published on 16 June 1926 in the
Rand Daily Mail, Millin's critique questioned the magazine's radical ambitions and fundamentally impacted its trajectory. She
dismissed the magazine as derivative, narrow, and overly reliant on Eurocentric "prophets" like T.S. Eliot and James Joyce. The heavy pushback from established literary figures like Millin, combined with internal editorial disputes, caused the original founders to resign quickly, and the journal ceased publication by 1927. The original Millin Rand Daily Mail article together with Campbell's response and that of several other readers, constitute the bulk of the press cuttings included in this lot.
Maurice Webb, who signs himself as Editor in the one letter included, was in fact not the Editor but served as the business manager and printer of Voorslag, acting as the essential bridge between the wealthy financier and the volatile literary editors. He was a Durban-based businessman with progressive views and an acquaintance of Roy Campbell’s father. In March 1925, Webb introduced Campbell to Lewis Reynolds, the wealthy son of a sugar planter. Knowing Campbell was in desperate poverty and unable to write, Webb helped convince Reynolds to financially back a new literary monthly. After the Voorslag project collapsed, Webb went on to have a profound impact on South African society. As a devout Quaker, he dedicated his life to civil rights, co-founding the South African Institute of Race Relations and serving as its President from 1943 to 1945.
Original letters on Voorslag letterheads are presumably scarce.
