Oak Tree Fine Press

Volume IV

Nadine Gordimer

The Conservationist

Nadine Gordimer at the launch of Vol IV of the First Chapter Series® in Johannesburg

Volume four of the First Chapter Series by Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer was joint winner of the Booker Prize with Stanley Middleton in 1974.

In the novel Nadine Gordimer has juxtaposed the world of a wealthy white industrialist with the rituals and mythology of Zulus. It is her densest and most poetical novel and it's minute details and documentary precision form an intricate web of meanings where each stone, egg, and piece of marble carry symbolic implication.

"Nadine Gordimer's work has grown into a profoundly psychological and social chronicle of half a century in South Africa. She is both its archivist and lighthouse keeper. Above her collected experience, the light sweeps, illuminating parts that would otherwise have lain in darkness, helping us navigate towards a South Africa that, far from being geographically cut off and politically ostracised, depicts a universal landscape", The Nobel Prize in Literature

Each numbered book is individually signed by the author and features three copper plate etchings by South African artist Cyril Coetzee. The images show Coetzee's patient attention to detail and his ability to render figures from the book in three-dimensional fullness. They are a marvelous accompaniment to a novel that occupies an important place in South African literary history.

The First Chapter Series

The First Chapter Series® of Booker Prize-winning novels is available to buy as a deluxe set, limited to 150 copies. Each set contains individually numbered copies of all the volumes published to date, signed by the author to the title page and hand bound in cloth. Each comes with signed artwork* which is enclosed with the book in a matching hand made slip case and cassette.

*with the exception of Volume V, for which artwork must be purchased separately

Set of eight books: ₤1150
Order the deluxe set

Single deluxe volume

Each deluxe volume of the First Chapter Series contains the individually numbered book signed by the author and hand bound in cloth. This is presented together with signed artwork in a matching hand made slip case and cassette.

Price: ₤175
Order deluxe volume

Single standard volume

We currently hold a number of copies of this book which are available to purchase singly. Each volume is hand bound in cloth and signed by the author to the title page. Separate signed artwork is not included.

Price: ₤75
Purchase single volume

Slipcase

A handmade matching slipcase can be ordered for the standard edition.
Price: ₤25
Order slipcase

Looking for a first edition of The Conservationist?

First editions of this and other books can be found in our online books store