White South African and Latter-day Bohemian Two Editions of Herman Charles Bosman

Abstract

This article surveys the publication history of Bosman’s works and the roles that he has played as author in his own eyes and those of his readers. During his lifetime, his stories appeared in periodicals which tended to be ephemeral, and he published in volume form only an early novel, his prison memoir and one volume of stories, which by his own account  were hastily selected. His former pupil and friend, Lionel Abrahams, took on the task after Bosman’s death of compiling a large selection of the rest of the work into volume form. Since at this stage Bosman was known as a writer to a relatively small circle, Abrahams could not justify the publication of anything but a generous selection of his work; but the resultant publications have been all-time best sellers in the South African market. Readers of this edition have often taken from the stories a perception of Bosman as in sympathy with the racism of his characters, an impression which the new, more complete edition edited by Stephen Gray and Craig MacKenzie will correct. Though the edition is not yet complete, and volumes will continue to appear until 2005, the centenary of Bosman’s birth, it is already possible to understand more of his beliefs and ambitions than the Abrahams edition allowed for.