In a Time of Plague: Memories of the Spanish Flu Epidemic on 1918 in South Africa

xxviii, 194pp plus occasional plate illustrations. In brown cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering. Bronze satin ribbon marker bound in. 8vo. Cloth very slightly rounded at base of spine, internally neat, clean, bright and tight. In its original illustrated dust jacket, slightly bumped on corners and spine tips, lightly faded along leading edge. The so-called Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, tellingly dubbed ‘Black October’ was at the time the worst disease episode to affect South Africa, where it claimed some 350,000 lives or around five percent of the population during a six week period. Cities, including Kimberley, Cape Town and Bloemfontein, particularly heavily hit, with corpse-laden carts trundling the streets to collect the dead. This volume captures graphically this short but unprecedented crisis in South African history.