Editing Bosman’s stories

Abstract

This article looks back at the editing work that went into the fourteen-volume Anniversary Edition of Herman Charles Bosman (1998–2005) and pays particular attention to the editing of Bosman’s stories. It examines some of the problems that were encountered in arriving at ‘authoritative’ versions of the stories and argues that, ironically, it was Bosman himself who set in train the process that resulted in his classic Mafeking Road ending up with nearly 100 errors in it by the early 1990s. The article ends with a plea for greater rigour in the editing of South African literary works.