Author: Steyn, M.T., President. (Ed. Con de Wet, Elizabeth van Heyningen, & Chris van der Merwe.
Title: Selections from the Letters of President M.T. Steyn, 1904-1910. Seleksies Uit Die Briewe Van President M.T. Steyn, 1904-1910.
Description: VRS Second Series Vol.48. Van Riebeeck Society 2017. Gilt titles on chocolate cloth boards. 205pp. illustrated b/w plates. 8vo 0.5kg. A very Fine copy. ISBN: 9780981426495 President Steyn is one of the heroes of Afrikaner history, leading the guerilla war against the British from 1899-1902 and fiercely resisting submission. Struck down with a neural disease in 1902 he was unable to participate in the negotiations that ended the war. Despite this he had an active role in politics for many years as an 'elder statesman'. In making available for the first time a wide selection of his letters between 1904 and 1910, it allows readers to follow his transformation from being a man whom the less-than-friendly 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica called ‘the most irreconcilable of the Boer leaders’ to a person whom it felt was ‘distinguished for his statesmanlike and conciliatory attitude’. His role in the negotiations which produced the first ‘new South Africa’ in 1910 was pivotal and these letters show how and why his outlook mellowed sufficiently for him to gain such behind-the-scenes influence.

Keywords: vrs biography autobiography letters president m.t. steyn


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