South African Legacy Libraries

I've been looking at the Legacy Libraries list and do not see any SAfrican authors. anyone interested in cataloguing a library or two of SA authors or NB people? I would imagine that the Smuts library is a good one to start on as the books were at Jan Smuts house on the Wits campus but later moved back to his Irene farm house. and a bibliography must exist. One's choice of author for the legacy library would depend on finding a list of books of the particular author and I guess this would require some searching. anyone interested ?

I would be but not sure how to go go about it. Would one have to do it physically or is there a list somewhere?

Usually the legacy libraries are done from lists so the cataloging can be crowd sourced. Most people try to find a list that is either on the web or can be scanned and put on a web page somewhere. Then you contact the Legacy Library list and folks volunteer to help.

I do have a 5 volume set of SA Biographies and am quite happy to look up some info if you give me names - JM Coetzee is married to my friends sister - they live in Adelaide Australia - Same friend also has a brother who wrote a few books on SA - like send war in our time oh lord - Jonty Driver - Alan Rabie used to hitch hike to grahamstown to visit his son who was at Rhodes in the early 70,s - maybe should add some of these snippets to CK.

All of this sounds great for CK on these particular authors. it occurs to me that while. legacy libraries are about the libraries of people who have passed on , and their libraries are in that sense a legacy, living authors are important as well . alto wondering if LT offers any special treatment or honour re Nobel literature prize winners .

5: Living authors can decide for themselves if they want to add their libraries to LibraryThing, so that wouldn't come under Legacy Libraries.

The only thing that gets done for Nobel Prize winners is to have it listed in their CK.

Alan Paton and Eugene Marais? Olive Schreiner? Maybe NELM National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown could help. Schreiner House in Cradock does not have her library and I know Nelm holds some of her papers.

Since almost any list would have been compiled by trained librarians or archivists, it would probably just be a case of transcribing the information into the requisite fields,requiring time and enthusiasm but little else.

Thanks for these recommendations... All would be good if we can find the details of the books they owned. Eugene Marais would get my vote .. The movie Die Winderwerker with screen play by Chris Barnard and directed by Katinka Heyns is excellent... Lead actors Dawid Minaar and
Elize . it is stunning . Did Marais leave a library ? UJ may be able to help us. I need time to go to Jan Smuts house on Wits campus to check whether there is a catalogue of the Smuts books... There was no reply to my e mAil, though the Friends of Doornkloof kindly sent me an electronic copy of the pamphlet on the Smuts library and anyone wanting a copy can send me an e mail address in a Private message off my profile page and will pass on . we all need more time to do all this interesting stuff.

Did UJ get the Marais Papers? I can't believe it! I'd have thought they'd go to Stellenbosch or some such institution. Uys Krge is another one: maybe UCT would have ideas there. And what about Roy Campbell? Would he be a South African writer after spending most of his life in Spain? Mind you, I believe he spoke with a very thick accent to the end of hs life and was fluent in Afrikaans.

I do not know if UJ bought the Marais papers but I know that they are collectors of his manuscripts etc and therefore will have a collection. I think we we are to find S African writers who are worthy of LL status we would need to connect with the main libraries and check what info they have. One needs to tie the library to a surviving catalogue of books owned by the particular author. I like Roy Campbell idea... it is all new territory for me to find out about what has been left in the way of collections. Alan Paton is another one we should look into.

What is really required is a famous South African with a museum. Of course there is the Jan Smuts one and I am sure there are many others. The Chris Barnard (surgeon not author) comes to mind in Beaufort West, but I do not know if he had any sort of Library. Also does anyone know if the late Helen Suzman had a Library?

Hi Yes. Helen had a very good library. I shall ask my friend and colleague who is the Director of the Helen Suzman Foundation about this library. would be terrific for all if we can get the HS library listed . I'll get on to this this week