The Soul of the White Ant - Softcover

Eugène N. Marais

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0798145935 ISBN 13: 9780798145930

Publisher: Human & Rousseau (Pty) Ltd, 2006

Synopsis

Eugène Marais was born in a farming community near Pretoria in 1872. Journalism was his first career, but he later studied law in London, and by 1910 was in Johannesburg trying to establish himself as an advocate. Increasing depression drove him to retreat to Waterberg, a mountain fastness in northern Transvaal. Settling near a large group of chacma baboons, he became the first man to conduct a prolonged study of primates in the wild. It was this period that produced My Friends the Baboons and provided the major inspiration for The Soul of the Ape. He returned to Pretoria to practise law, to resume his career as a journalist, to continue his animal studies and to write poetry in Afrikaans. In 1926, the year after he had published a definitive article on his original research and conclusions about the white ant, a world-famous European author took half Marais's life-work and published it as his own. This plagiarizing may well have been a major factor in Marais's final collapse. Plagued for many years by ill-health and an addiction to morphine, he took his own life in March 1936.

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English, Afrikaans (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: Human & Rousseau (Pty) Ltd
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0798145935
• ISBN 13: 9780798145930
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160