Harald's Archive: Central News Agency

Harald's Archive: Central News Agency

15. Central News Agency

97 Eloff between Kerk and Jeppe, west side
Handel House was on the opposite side of Eloff but had been demolished before my time.
Later (1950s?) this branon moved back across the street to larger premises in a new building. And the branch name was dropped. Later (before (1980s?) they moved to smaller premises round the corner, south side of Jeppe between Eloff and Von Brandis, now gone.                                
New books.

 Eloff west side:

 Bought : The Poems of John Donne ed Sir H.   Grierson, 1945 impression. An attractive volume; the   gold lettering has not faded, O.S.A. I had had my eye   on this and bought it one afternoon on my way to a   lecture at the technical college (to counterbalance   my fitting and turning). Price 4/6 I think, this was in  1945 or 1946, the fifth and last year of my   apprenticeship.
 The Brandons by Angela Thirkell, Penguin 1950, price 2/-. This was in about 1952 and got me hooked this author. By 1959 I had all her novels, in one form or another, except Wild Strawberries and Trooper to the Southern Cross, which last I wasn’t even aware of. Her later novels didn’t appeal to me so much, and when we moved in 1959 I gave away the lot except the Brandons.
Seen: The Lamplighter by M.S. Cummins, illustrated.
 

A small ratiter wizened man of indeterminate age who was very knowledgeable about books worked there in the 1950s. (private informant).

Eloff Street, east side, African City

I think by this time CNA had become the official name and they also sold toys, etc, which together with stationery occupied the ground floor. Books and magazines were on the floor below, a fairly large area but I remember very little about the books.

Bought: A Collection of SF Stories ed. Tom Boardman
Anthology of SA verse ed. ?, both Penguin.

The Supernatural in Fiction by Peter Penzoldt, Humanities Press N.Y. 1965 (sale), R5,45 reduced to R2,73 (I didn't  buy it), reduced to R1,38 (I did) - 1924.

I could have got the original 1952 edition (Peter Owen?) in the 50s for 5/- at a CNA Commissioner sale. Two Collins Classics, Kipps and Barchester Towers (sale) R1,70 reduced to 85c. I had read B.T

About 1945 in Nelson Classics without much enthusiasm (in Parys!) but this time around I liked it very much. I was able to follow it up with Trollope: A Commentary by Michael Sadleir with its starring system (Ofxord PB from Van Schaik, PTA). This started me off on a Trollope hunt. Wells’s son once said to him ‘I’ve discovered a wonderful author’. Wells: ‘If you say Trollope I’ll kill you!’

Jeppe Street south side

Much reduced premises.

Carnival Novelty on the first floor.                                

Bought: Bizarre Books by Russell Ash and Brian                                                      Lake R4.99 (sale). This was in 1986 or 1987.

Now gone.

 

 

West side of Eloff Street

between Market and Commissioner, Next to Carlton Hotel entrance

1930s to 1964, when hotel was demolished

New books and magazines

Book bought: Poems and Miscellanies of Edgar Allan Poe (Oxford Standard Authors), 4/6.
Magazine bought: Probably 1942 which was when Haycraft’s Murder for Pleasure was published in England, ‘The Bookseller’, at that time plain, thin black and white. This had an abbreviated version of Haycraft’s ‘A Readers’ List of Detective Story “Cornerstones”! I located the book at OK Bazaars (9.v.)
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