Nathaniel Nakasa and Barney Simon
The Classic, Volume one, number 1 - Volume three, number 4, twelve
Session One
LOT 814
Nathaniel Nakasa and Barney Simon
The Classic, Volume one, number 1 - Volume three, number 4, twelve
About this Item
(2) Nathaniel Nakasa (ed) (1963) The Classic: Vol 1, No 2, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(3) Nathaniel Nakasa (ed) (1964) The Classic: Vol 1, No 3, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(4) Barney Simon and Casey Motsisi (eds) (1965) The Classic: Vol 1, No 4, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(5) Barney Simon (ed) (1966) The Classic: Vol 2, No 1, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(6) Barney Simon (ed) (1966) The Classic: Vol 2, No 2, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(7) Barney Simon (ed) (1967) The Classic: Vol 2, No 3, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(8) Barney Simon (ed) (1968) The Classic: Vol 2, No 4, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(9) Barney Simon (ed) (1968) The Classic: Vol 3, No 1, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(10) Barney Simon (ed) (1969) The Classic: Vol 3, No 2, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(11) Lola Watter (ed) (1970) The Classic: Vol 3, No 3, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
(12) Barney Simon (ed) (1971) The Classic: Vol 3, No 4, Johannesburg: The Classic Magazine Trust Fund, softcover, illustrated in black and white
Notes
(1) Vol 1, no 1 accompanied by three black and white plates by Andrew Motjuoadi, loose.
(2) Vol 1, no 2 includes five black and white plates by Louis Maqhubela.
(3) Vol 1, no 3 includes five black and white plates by Bill Ainslee.
(4) Vol 1, no 4 includes three black and white plates by Matjuoadi, Maghubela and Ngatane.
(5) Vol 2, no 1 includes nine black and white photographs by John Cohen.
(6) Signed on the cover page by Michael Gardiner. Vol 2 no 2 includes two black and white plates by Beaufort Delaney and Naccache.
(7) Signed on the cover page by Michael Gardiner. Vol 2 no 3 includes four black and white plates by Godfrey Mthembu, Lettie Maphalala and Thomas.
(8) Vol 2 no 4 includes four black and white plates by Dumile Feni.
(9) Vol 3 no 1 includes seven black and white photographs by Peter Magubane.
(10) Vol 3 no 2 includes six black and white plates by Peter Magubane.
(11) Vol 3 no 3 includes three black and white plates by Ezrom Legae.
(12) Vol 3 no 4 includes eight black and white plates by Sydney Goldblatt.
Published between 1963 - 1971, 12 editions.
'The Classic magazine, from the outset, chose to focus on the best available examples of artistic and cultural (and hence political) work of its time. In doing so, it was entirely different from the journalism and reportage of Drum of the 1950s even though many contributors had associations with that magazine. It is to The Classic that one must go to find the roots of the cultural revolution of the 1970s in South Africa. With a title taken from a laundry in central Johannesburg that fronted as a shebeen, the first number of The Classic in 1963 was a blockbuster. Nat Nakasa undertook "to seek African writing of merit" (Volume 1:1. p. 4). Nakasa edited only three numbers of this magazine for in 1965 he took up a Niemann Fellowship for journalists at Harvard and he left South Africa on an exit permit because he was refused a passport. Barney Simon took over as editor. Nasaka fell to his death from a New York building on 14 July 1965.'
Michael Gardiner
Warren Siebrits (2005) South African Literary Magazines 1956 - 1978, Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits Modern and Contemporary Art, exhibition catalogue
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