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JONES,J. D. F: : STORYTELLER: The Many Lives of Laurens van der Post

LONDON.JOHN MURRAY (Publishers) Ltd.,2001.

ISBN 0719555809.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE. Neat,small blue ink owner name+ dateline to ffe and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,matt, subject's portrait b/w photographic illustrated dw/dj panels with gold coloured+white lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight, clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright, crisp,clean,sharp-cornered, publisher's original plain black cloth bds with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white eps - owner name excepted.UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj, 1st edn,viii-xpp+2-505pp [paginated] includes separate contents+ illustrations lists/tables,an introduction,Pts 1-6 comprising 41 chapters,16pp contemporary b/w auto+biographical photographs in 1 block,between pp270/1,notes,a select bibliography,acknowledgements and an index,plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,a dedication,a foreword,3 b/w maps,van der Post's 'Hottentot' descent family tree,an epigram and 4pp blanks at the rear of the book. When he died n 1996,Laurens van der Post had won renown in an astounding range of roles: as war hero,writer,explorer,mystic,environmentalist,Jungian,behind-the-scenes diplomat,and friend and confidant of the great - famously including both Mrs Thatcher and Prince Charles.He seeemed to be one of the most remarkable men the twentieth century had produced.His conversation influenced thousands, his ideas millions.But he discouraged biographers in his lifetime on the grounds that in his many books he had told his story himself. After his death doubts soon began to spread as to whether this story presented a true picture.Was his knowledge of the Kalahari Bushmen, whom he prized as the last example of all that is untainted in humanity,as extensive as he led us to believe,and did the Bushman stories he so loved to tell come mainly from books? His standing as some kind of secular saint certainly suffered with the emergence of an illegitimate daughter whose mother he had seduced when she was 14.And his claim to have effectively brokered the Lancaster House agreement on Zimbabwean independence was deflated by those who had actually been there.His intimacy with C. G. Jung has also to be qualified. Sir Lauren's family authorized this major biography by J.D.F. Jones, giving him exclusive access to the van der Post papers and allowing him complete freedom.The result is an enthralling book.It portrays a very different man form the one we thought we knew and shows that the revelations made so far are only the beginning.It looks behind the facade that Sir Laurens so skilfully created and suggests that he became a prisoner of his own creation.However,the love he inspired was genuine and to be in his presence was inspiring.Also his philosophy influenced a large number of people,gving them an inner strength which many craved.His life and beliefs satisfied a hunger in the alienated century whose history, he liked to say,was also his own.But they were in the end just another story. Since April 2013 and again in March 2015,and in 2016 too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering it's prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact seller,because of the weight/value of this item for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.

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