Afterword: Publishing an academic edition of From Man to Man or Perhaps Only — in South Africa

Abstract

This afterword to the written symposium “Between ‘the lights and shadows’: Reading the new edition of Olive Schreiner’s From Man to Man or Perhaps Only —” contains an interview with Sandy Shepherd, publisher at UCT Press, about Dorothy Driver’s 2015 edition of From Man to Man. Topics raised include the importance of local academic publishing in providing locally-specific knowledge, challenging knowledge distribution dominated from the global North, keeping local cultures alive, and establishing synergies between local and international research and local publishing. Difficulties with local academic publishing are addressed, such as high costs and a limited readership. The tensions between producing a thorough academic edition and appealing to a wider audience, and thus facilitating the spread of a novel important to South African cultural history, are discussed.