Bakercourt's Blog

Right-o, well, this is the freelance research work I did for Edgars, which really should be 'Edgar's'. It was for their September 2009 "Special Collector's Edition" magazine which is sent out free to all Edgars Club Members. You cannot get the magazine any other way; unless, like me, you spy an unguarded pile on the enquiries desk and spirit one away when nobody is looking. That being said, I'm not sure why it is considered to be a special collector's item. 

The research was essentially three days of being holed up in Cape Town National Library with a series of strange paper slips, secret passwords, and ancient magazines. (Note to self: evaluate Oxford Comma in later post) You walk into the dark leather Reading Room, find a desk, and fill out the relevant request code on a piece of paper. There is absolutely no indication of how you acquire such a code – presumably from the outdated card catalogue in the room preceding the RR on your way in. I asked a friendly-looking librarian and she happened to know the reference codes for the Sarie, Huis Genoot and You magazines from the last 80 years. Amazing. It takes approximately an hour to receive your requested goods. Also, you are not allowed to move, scan or photocopy any material: you must fill out the appropriate photocopy-request forms, have the form signed and duplicated, take the duplicate to the cashier on the other side of the library to pay and have it stamped and signed, return the double-signed and stamped copy to the request desk and then collect your photocopies from the cashier approximately two days later. There is a novel in here somewhere! (Note to self, again: David Lodge's The British Museum is Falling Down started dealing with this, possibly pick up on the idea but develop it without the overbearing Christian Fecundity issue?) For interest's sake, a standard photocopy costs .50c. The paperwork to approve the photocopy is certainly worth more than this!

The following images are the results, or rather the fruits, of my labour: 

This is the Double Spread, pages 8 and 9 of the magazine but actually the first bit of text after the editorial (there are a lot of adverts in the club magazine). I could have written better copy for them! Well, they didn't know that it is my area of expertise, as it were. It was incredibly difficult to find Edgars adverts and information for the first sixty years – what you see above is literally everything that I managed to source. It was incredibly difficult work, many blisters from turning so many old pages. 

I'd like to claim the credit for this spread, but it's sadly not my brainchild. I pointed out how the logo changed so drastically (making it incredibly difficult to locate adverts!) and they converted that into a clever little spread on the idea of "changing with the times". Nice. I think they should have kept their original logo! 

The images are generated from colour scans that each cost about R70 – R100, depending on the page size. They have a very fancy photocopier/scanner machine that generates incredibly convincing colour images! This is a necessary step for (1) permission to use the material, (2) digitalising the material for use in dtp and (3) moving the material outside of the library which would be otherwise impossible. It is a very tricky matter getting permissions from magazines etc. to use information published previously, as we know, but they seemed to have an agreement so there weren't any additional tasks required on my part (I was initially required to go to the Sarie and Huis Genoot archives for this, but it was quickly resolved).