House of Juta

Few businesses in South Africa can boast a track record of more than 150 years of unbroken service. Juta's enviable position as a powerful force in local publishing and bookselling, focusing on knowledge and information, is made more remarkable by the fact that it has remained essentially a family concern to the present day. The House of Juta is the extraordinary historical account of the founders, families and staff members of Juta and Company Limited who together forged Juta into the business it is today, a household name in South Africa. Volume one: Pioneer publisher cover the tough seminal years from 1853 to 1903, when the Juta family, headed by founder Jan Carel, steered the bookselling and publishing business through some typical rough Cape commercial waters. It was Jan Carel who grasped the need to print books specifically for the local market and who published the first genuinely 'South African' works from his tiny premises in Wale Street. It is also an important record of early book retailing and local publishing in the country, and provides fascinating insights into the industry against the tumultuous background of our history.The volume culminates in the aftermath of the devastating fire of 1901 that could have destroyed the company but instead set the stage for a new era under the stewardship of the Duncan and Cuyper families.

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