Herman Charles Bosman - Books, Plays

Short-story writer, essayist, and novelist, born in Kuils River, near Cape Town, SW South Africa. His literary reputation has been largely posthumous. He taught in a remote country district near Groot Marico, in the Transvaal. This provided the setting for his short stories about rural Afrikaners - affectionate, sardonic, wry, and moving tales. He also wrote a memorable prison memoir, Cold Stone Jug (1949), and two novels.

Herman Charles Bosman (1905 - October 14, 1951) was a South African writer and journalist who became famous for capturing the rhythms of backveld Afrikaans speech even though he wrote in English.

Upon graduating, he accepted a teaching position in the Groot Marico district, in an Afrikaans language school.

During the school holidays in 1926, he returned to visit his family in Johannesburg.

He was sentenced to death and moved to Death row at the Pretoria Central Prison.

He then started his own printing press company and was part of a literary set in Johannesburg, associating with poets, journalists and writers. The short stories that he wrote during this period formed the basis for another of his best-known books, Mafeking Road.

At the start of the Second World War, he returned to South Africa and worked as a journalist.

He lamented the fact that Johannesburg never respected its heritage;

After his death, the rights to his works were auctioned, and purchased by his last wife.

Only three of his books were published during his lifetime;

His biography was written by Valerie Rosenberg and was called Sunflower to the sun ISBN 0-7981-1228-X Human & Rousseau.

Because many of his stories were originally published in long-forgotten magazines and journals, there are a number of anthologies by different collators each containing a different selection.

Books

Mafeking Road & Other Stories (1947) ISBN 0-7981-3902-1 Human & Rousseau Rubaijat van Omar Khajjam (1948) Colin Reed-McDonald Cold Stone Jug (1949) ISBN 0-7981-3981-1 Human & Rousseau Veld-trails and pavements (1949) with Carel Bredell Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel Cask of Jerepigo (1957) Central News Agency Unto dust (1963) edited by Lionel Abrahams ISBN 0-7981-1501-7 Anthony Blond Bosman at his best: a choice of stories and sketches (1965) edited by Lionel Abrahams ISBN 0-7981-0249-7 Human & Rousseau Bosman's Johannesburg (1986) edited by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-7981-2001-0 Human & Rousseau Ramoutsa Road (1987) ISBN 0-86852-130-2 Ad. Donker A Bekkersdal marathon (1971) ISBN 0-7981-0030-3 Human & Rousseau The Earth is Waiting (1974) Willemsdorp (1977) ISBN 0-7981-3901-3 Human & Rousseau Almost Forgotten Stories (1979) ISBN 0-86978-167-7 H. Timmins Selected Stories (1980) edited by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-7981-1031-7 Human & Rousseau The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman (1981) edited by Lionel Abrahams ISBN 0-86850-029-1 Jonathan Ball The Bosman I like (1981) edited by Patrick Mynhardt ISBN 0-7981-1179-8 Human & Rousseau Death Hath Eloquence (1981) ISBN 0-86984-189-0 Christelike Uitgewersmaatskappy Uncollected essays (1981) ISBN 0-86978-167-7 Timmins The Illustrated Bosman (1985) ISBN 0-86850-112-3 Jonathan Ball Makapan's cave and other stories (1987) edited by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-14-009262-5 Penguin Books A Bosman Treasury (1991) edited by Ian Lusted ISBN 0-7981-2830-5 Human & Rousseau Jurie Steyn's Post Office (1991) ISBN 0-7981-2903-4 Human & Rousseau Herman Charles Bosman : the prose juvenilia (1998) collected and introduced by M.C. Andersen ISBN 1-86888-049-4 University of South Africa Idle talk : voorkamer stories (1999) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-3982-X Human & Rousseau Old Transvaal Stories (2000) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4085-2 Human & Rousseau The Rooinek and Other Boer War Stories (2000) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4031-3 Human & Rousseau Jacaranda in the Night (2000) ISBN 0-7981-4084-4 Human & Rousseau Best of Bosman (2001) edited by Stephen Gray and Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4203-0 Human & Rousseau Seed-Time and Harvest, and Other Stories (2001) edited by Craig MacKenzie ISBN 0-7981-4186-7 Human & Rousseau Verborge skatte : Herman Charles Bosman in/on Afrikaans (2001) collected by Leon de Kock ISBN 0-7981-4185-9 Human & Rousseau

Plays

Cold Stone Jug (1982) adapted by Barney Simon from the play by Stephen Gray ISBN 0-7981-1309-X Human & Rousseau