Unto Dust and Other Stories

by Herman Charles Bosman

One thing that certain thoughtless people sometimes hint at about my stories is that nothing ever seems to happen in them. Then there is another kind of person who goes even further, and he says that the stories I tell are all stories that he has heard before, somewhere, long ago he can’t remember when, exactly, but somewhere at the back of his mind he knows that it is not a new story. I have heard that remark passed quite often which is not surprising, seeing that I really don’t know any new stories. But the funny part of it is that these very people will come around, say, ten years later, and ask me to tell them another story. And they will say, then, because of what they have learnt of life in between, that the older the better (Oom Schalk Lourens, The Selon’s Rose). This revised edition of Unto Dust gathers Oom Schalk’s last tales and concludes the sequence begun in Mafeking Road and continued in Seed-time and Harvest. It includes famous stories (Unto Dust, Funeral Earth,The Traitor’s Wife), two previously unpublished ones (Bush Telegraph and Tryst by the Vaal) and others previously uncollected and barely known. Vintage Bosman at his most masterly, written in an intense last period. Edited from original versions, with an introduction and notes on the texts.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, South Africa, Africa

142 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

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. He is widely regarded as the greatest short story writer to come out of South Africa. Many of his stories have a sting in the tail.

He was born at Kuilsrivier, near Cape Town. While still young, his family moved to Johannesburg where he went to school at Jeppe Boys High School in Kensington. He was a contributor to the school magazine. When he was 16, he started writing amusing short stories for the national Sunday newspaper (the Sunday Times). He attended the University of the Witwatersrand submitting various pieces to student’s literary competitions.

Upon graduating, he accepted a teaching position in the Groot Marico district. The area and the people inspired him and provided the background for his best stories; the ones about Oom Schalk Lourens and the Voorkamer sketches. (In Afrikaans, Oom is Uncle and a Voorkamer is literally the Front Room).

During the school holidays in 1926, he returned to visit his family in Johannesburg. During an argument, he fired a rifle at his stepbrother and killed him.

He was sentenced to death and moved to Death row at the Pretoria Central Prison. He was reprieved and sentenced to ten years with hard labour. In 1930, he was released on parole after serving half his sentence. His experiences formed the basis for one of his best known books, Cold Stone Jug.

He then started his own printing press company and was part of a literary set in Johannesburg, associating with poets, journalists and writers. Needing a break, he then toured overseas for nine years, spending most of his time in London. 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 found the time to translate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into Afrikaans.

He lamented the fact that Johannesburg never respected its heritage; writing in The Standard Theatre "They will pull down the Standard Theatre like they have pulled down all the old buildings, theatres, gin-palaces, dosshouses, temples, shops, arcades, cafes and joints that were intimately associated with the mining-camp days of Johannesburg. Because I know Johannesburg. And I am satisfied that there is no other city in the world that is so anxious to shake off the memories of its early origins."

He married Ella Manson, and the couple were renowned for their bohemian lifestyle and parties. His parties ended well after midnight with much witty conversation. After a housewarming party he was taken ill with severe chest pains and was taken to Edenvale Hospital. On admission he was asked, "Place of birth?" He replied, "Born Kuilsrivier - Died Edenvale Hospital." He was discharged and collapsed at home a few hours later. He died as he was being rushed to hospital. He is buried in Westpark Cemetery in Westdene.

Only three of his books were published during his lifetime; Mafeking Road published by Dassie, and Jacaranda in the Night and Cold Stone Jug published by APB.

His biography was written by Valerie Rosenberg and was called Sunflower to the sun ISBN 079811228X 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. His original books have also been published many times by different publishers.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Even though you really need to have a background in the history, language and culture for parts of it to make sense (I don't, so I spent a lot of time confused), it's still a pretty quick and easy read. There is something both deep and whimsical, and they were great stories to read. My particular favourites were "Two Brothers", "Peaches in the Sun" and "Old Transvaal Story".

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime short stories by South Africa's greatest writer bar none

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a small used bookstore in Johannesburg and I bought it because the stories were short enough to read while waiting for a coffee. The book surprised me. Some stories are very powerful and evoke a south africa of a very different time before apartheid, before there was a South Africa. The stories are influenced by o'henry. Nearly all have a slightly ironic ending. Sometimes it works very well. Since they all share a similar format it they use a little if you read too many in a row. For an American reader the similarities to the American frontier are hard to ignore which can be disquieting. Some also capture the decimation of the boer war and what it means to lose a war powerfully. Finding this book was a wonderful small surprise

[Ryan Monaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is a fantastic and sharp-witted collection of short stories written by one of the foremost Afrikaner authors of the 20th century. Each of these stories offers an intimate snapshot of 'life in the veld' for turn of the century Afrikaners, a perspective that has become vilified in recent years. Personal favorites from the collection: Funeral Earth and the title piece, Unto Dust.