Herman Charles Bosman 
Cold Stone Jug – The Anniversary Edition 

Herman Charles Bosman’s unique account of the term he served as a young man in Pretoria Central Prison. Convicted of murder, and initially condemned to hang on death row, he had his sentence commuted to be a regular convict through the 1920s and into the 30s.

By turns gruesome and humorous, and bravely wrenched out of his tortured memory, when it was first published in 1949 Cold Stone Jug was greeted as too grim and dubious for polite literary circles, although it proved a reliable seller. Its rise to classic status has been unstoppable, and it is now widely considered the founding text of all South African prison writings. As readable as ever, it is now hailed as Bosman’s masterpiece of irony as well, vivid and unforgettable.

This text of Cold Stone Jug is edited from the original edition, corrected by Bosman himself, with a detailed introduction placing the work in the historical and literary context it served to shape.

“This is really a love story – a story of adolescent love . . . Her eyes were heavily fringed with dark lashes, like barred windows. Her bosom was hard and pure and cold – like a cement floor. And it was a faithful and chaste love. During all those years of my young manhood, in whose arms did I sleep each night, but in hers?”

About the author

Herman Charles Bosman (1905-51) completed and published his prison memoir, Cold Stone Jug, in early 1949. Fifty years later it is republished here in a restored text following the original edition corrected by him for his publisher, the APB Bookstore in Johannesburg, where it was a fast seller, greeted as an important addition to the work of the post-war new generation of South African English-language writers.

As the introduction here shows in a wealth of fresh detail, Cold Stone Jug’s climb to classic status as the foundational text of the country’s prison literature has been slow but sure. It still continues to fascinate new readers.

A work that pushed back the boundaries of what was suitable subject matter for literary treatment in South Africa, Cold Stone Jug has remained as shocking – and as grimly humorous – as when it first appeared. This is the closest Bosman came to writing an autobiography, restricted to the years 1926-30 during which he served his term, sentenced for murder.

The original edition of Cold Stone Jug was dedicated “to Helena, my wife” and had the following epigraph:

A chronicle: being the unimpassioned record
of a somewhat lengthy sojourn
in prison.