When he died in 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 seemed to be one of the most remarkable men the 20th 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 ...
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When he died in 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 seemed to be one of the most remarkable men the 20th 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, however, as to whether this story presented a true picture. Was his knowledge of the Kalahari Bushmen, 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 15. And his claim to have effectively brokered the Lancaster House agreement on Zimbabwean independence was deflated by those who had actually been there. Nor was that all. Sir Laurens's famly authorized this biography, giving J.D.F. Jones exclusive access to the Van der Post papers and allowing him complete freedom. A completely different man from that portrayed by the media is presented. This biography looks behind the facade that Sir Laurens so skilfully created and suggests that he became to some extent a prisoner of it. The love he inspired was genuine, but the account of his life that he presented was in the end just another of his wonderful stories.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Near fine jacket. Fine/Near fine. John Murray, 2001. First UK edition-printing. Black hardback(gilt lettering to the spine, small nick on the edge of the spine) in fine condition, with Dj(a couple of creases and scratches on the Dj cover) in near fine condition. Illustrated with b/w photos, map. Nice and clean pages as new with a small ick on the outer edges, light shelf wear on the Dj cover.516pp including List of illustrations, foreword, family trees, notes, bibliography, index. Price un-clipped. A collectable first edition. Heavy book(approx 1.2 Kg).
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Very Good in Very Good jacket. 505 pages (complete). Jacket and boards a bit shelf rubbed and marked. Tanning, minor markings. Still in a very good condition, tightly bound and intact. MN.
Like many I've been entranced and inspired by van der Post's writing. I met him when he gave the key-note presentation for the World Wilderness Congress, Cairns 1981. The audience listened entranced. When he stopped speaking I realised that there was no way I could repeat or summarise his presentation, it was far too evocative and had no linear logic as far as I could remember. So that was the man.
Jones bio is mostly hailed by reviewers, who also reported on its many revelations. Indeed a friend's father had been in the one of the camps van der Post had written of, and he said "it wasn't quite like that", (as depicted in the Night of the New Moon" ), Max Hastings wrote in his family bio that his own father, as a journalist, had stumbled around in the Khalahari and caught up with wild bushmen, at the same time van der Post was on his 'expedition'. So I was prepared for 'revelations'
However as a bio it is quite disappointing. While it does seem it could be said that van der Post became somewhat of a fabulist, exagerating and putting himself at the center of events, nontheless, he did fight with Stirling in the desert, he did play a key role in the survival of the inmates in the Japanese prison camps, and he was assigned to stay on in Indonesia to manage Britain's administration of Indonesia after the war. All these things are achievements of some measure.
Jones somehow got stuck on the errors/exaggerations in van der Posts writing, so that book seems to work through his life and writings, ticking of errors as they are found. It fails to admit almost any accomplishment at all, or to explore the varied life and character of van der Post. And so while we can thank Jones for the list of errors and failings he has done little to go from there to reveal the life and the man.
