Herman Charles Bosman – The prose juvenilia

The reputation of Herman Charles Bosman rests, for the most part, on a large body of short stories about the people of the Great Marico and on his skilfully created raconteur Oom Schalk Lourens.

But few people are aware that Bosman’s literary career began much earlier than the Oom Schalk Lourens tales: in fact, when he was a scholar at Jeppe High School.

His contributions to issues of the school magazine of 1921, which contain a pair of sketches in Sherlock Holmes vein, were aimed at a different audience from the adult readers of the Johannesburg Sunday Times who, in 1921 and 1922, would have been entertained by over a dozen tales from the pen of the young Bosman.

The last of the juvenile prose from his pen was published in 1925 in the University of the Witwatersrand Student Magazine, The Umpa.

For the first time since the 1920s, readers can enjoy these youthful works in The prose juvenilia.

Jacaranda in the night

Here is Bosman’s cool analysis of maleness and sadism down Voortrekker Street in the South African dorps of old, in the days of General Smuts’ collapsing Union. Here is the seamy underside of boarding-house and school common room, exposed with masterly psychological sharpness, the erotic drives laid bare as they had never been so explicitly before. Bosman’s tale of a triangular passion leading to brutal murder reads just as intriguingly today as when its hot Chapter Six, thought to be pornographic, shocked its first readers.

This text of Jacaranda in the night, complete and unabridged, is edited from the original printing, with an introduction placing it within the post-war Johannesburg literary school of hard realism which it served to shape.

Old Transvaal Stories

Justly famous for his ‘Oom Schalk Lourens’ and ‘Voorkamer’ sequences – in which characters are used to narrate the stories – Bosman is equally impressive when he becomes personally involved as a narrator. In Old Transvaal stories Bosman retells old tales and, in the process, reflects wittily and self-ironically on the art of storytelling. Never content to leave the stories as he found them, he polishes and embellishes – and invariably gives each tale a surprising turn. The stories include:

• Old Transvaal story 

• The clay-pit 

• The murderess 

• A tale writ in water 

• The heart of a woman 

• New elder 

• Shy young man 

• Night on the veld

The Rooinek and other Boer War Stories

The Boer War as seen through the eyes of South Africa’s master storyteller through stories like Mafeking road, The rooinek, The traitor’s wife, and Peaches ripening in the sun. Cutting through the outer layers of glamour and nostalgic embellishment, Bosman sees to the heart of the common burgher fighting a numerically superior and vastly better equipped foe. Through tales of cowardice and betrayal, courage and forbearance, in Bosman’s hands the dramatic events of 1899 – 1902 take on poignant human dimensions. Narrated principally by Oom Schalk Lourens, these eleven tales capture Bosman’s humorous and empathetic – yet unillusioned – view of this watershed event in South African history.

Willemsdorp: Anniversary edition

Herman Charles Bosman's classic work about South African small-town intrigue, Willemsdorp, is published here for the first time in complete, uncut form. Set in the steamy Northern Transvaal – just prior to the 1948 National Party election victory – this novel scathingly lifts the lid off those favourite dorp pastimes of infidelity, immorality, dagga-smoking, brandy-drinking, blackmail … and the inevitable murder.

With his usual genial humour, added to an unholy kind of satirical wisdom, Bosman completed this work shortly before his death, leaving us in "Charlie Hendricks" an ironic and unforgettable portrait of himself as the hack-writer who charted the South African way of life like no one before him.

Here is his last masterpiece, his "American" novel, freshly edited by Stephen Gray from the original text – full, uncut, and as Bosman intended.

Herman Charles Bosman, who died of a heart attack in 1951, is one of South Africa's most famous story-tellers. As a person he had a unique way of seeing life, an intense excitement that he managed to convey in his stories. His books are pre-eminent in the field of South-African literature.

This text of Willemsdorp is the first of the anniversary editions to appear. In recognition of his importance as a literary figure, Human & Rousseau have decided to publish anew Bosman’s complete works. These will be definitive editions, with each and every title being re-edited from original sources, following the author’s original intentions as far as they may be reconstructed.

Idle Talk: Voorkamer Stories (i): Anniversary edition

Herman Charles Bosman's subtle and hilarious Voorkamer stories, published here for the first time in their original sequence.

In Jurie Steyn's voorkamer, which doubles as the Drogevlei Post Office, a group of Marico farmers gather to share the news of the day. Prompted by wireless enthusiast At Naudé, these backveld wiseacres hold forth on a variety of topics, from marathon dancing (as in the famous "A Bekkersdal Marathon") to the tenacity of white ants. Stories of pretty girls returning from finishing school, of ghosts, visionaries and hypochondriacs unfold in the time it takes for the Government lorry to arrive with the post and empty milk-cans from Bekkersdal.

Then there is the time-honoured annual school concert, the romantic intrigue that holds the community in thrall, the railway deputation that sets off each year to interview the local Volksraad member about an election promise … Bosman's unforgettable episodic portrait of a 1950s Marico community poised uncertainly between modernity and a fast-fading romantic past.

Idle Talk is the first of two volumes that will see the entire Voorkamer sequence published in book form for the first time.

Herman Charles Bosman, who died of a heart attack in 1951, is one of South Africa's most famous story-tellers. As a person he had a unique way of seeing life, an intense excitement that he managed to convey in his stories. His books are pre-eminent in the field of South-African literature.

Planning began in late 1997 – the fiftieth anniversary of Bosman's first collection in book form, Mafeking Road – to re-edit his works in their original, unabridged and uncensored texts. The project should be completed by 2005 – the centenary of his birth.

Cold Stone Jug: Anniversary edition

Few people following his trial would have guessed that the young teacher sentenced to death for murder in November 1926 would live to become one of South Africa's most famous writers. The court did not accept Herman Charles Bosman's plea that the incident, in which he shot his stepbrother, was an accident, but after nine days in the death cell, the sentence was commuted to ten years imprisonment.

Cold Stone Jug is Bosman's unique account of the term he served in Pretoria Central Prison. By turns gruesome and humorous, Cold Stone Jug was first published in 1949. The book was greeted as too grim and dubious for polite literary circles, although it proved a reliable seller. Its rise to classic status has been unstoppable, and it is now widely considered the founding text of all South African prison writings. As readable as ever, vivid and unforgettable, it is currently hailed as Bosman's masterpiece of irony.

This text of Cold Stone Jug was edited from the original edition, corrected by Bosman himself, with a detailed introduction placing the work in the historical and literary context it served to shape by Stephen Grey.

Herman Charles Bosman, who died of a heart attack in 1951, is one of South Africa's most famous storytellers. As a person, he had a unique way of seeing life, an intense excitement that he managed to convey in his stories. His books are pre-eminent in the field of South-African literature.

Planning began in late 1997 – the fiftieth anniversary of Bosman's first collection in book form, Mafeking Road – to re-edit his works in their original, unabridged and uncensored texts. The project should be completed by 2005 – the centenary of his birth.

Mafikeng Road & Other Stories: Anniversary edition

Herman Charles Bosman's best-loved stories about the Marico District are published here for the first time in the form intended by the author. This text of Mafeking Road – edited by Craig MacKenzie – is the first to appear from the original versions, with an introduction and notes on the texts.

Bosman's storyteller figure Oom Schalk Lourens takes us into the world of the concertina-player who leaves the Marico for fame and glory; the girl who returns from finishing school to dazzle and dupe the Marico yokels; the Boer War soldier with a tragic story to tell about his son; the legendary leopard of Abjaterskop; the man who kills his wife and buries her under the dung floor of his voorkamer …

Jealousies, hatreds, loves and betrayals – the entire range of human emotions are laid bare in a manner at once humorous and satirical, romantic and ironic. Mafeking Road reveals to us a world quaint and distant … and yet powerfully familiar.

Herman Charles Bosman, who died of a heart attack in 1951, is one of South Africa's most famous story-tellers. This is a classic collection of his short stories. As a person he had a unique way of seeing life, an intense excitement that he managed to convey in his stories. His books are pre-eminent in the field of South-African literature.

In recognition of his importance as a literary figure, Human & Rousseau have decided to publish anew Bosman’s complete works. These will be definitive editions, with each and every title being re-edited from original sources, following the author’s original intentions as far as they may be reconstructed.

Jurie Steyn's Postoffice: Anniversary edition

A Bekkersdal Marathon