Clarke's Bookshop

File:Tony Clarke.jpg

Clarke's Bookshop was opened in November 1957{{efn|name=fn1}} as a second-hand bookstore.{{Cite web |date=14 March 2017 |title=Bookshop of the Month - March 2017: Clarke's, Cape Town|url=https://bookscombined.com/portfolio/march-2017-clarkes-cape-town/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028091941/https://bookscombined.com/portfolio/march-2017-clarkes-cape-town/ |archive-date=28 October 2017 |access-date=2 June 2025 |website=Books Combined}} It was founded by Anthony "Tony" Clarke {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MC}} who had formerly served as a captain and commander of the Chestnut Troop “A” Battery in the 1st regiment Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army.{{Cite journal |last=Parr |first=Anthony |date=June 2022 |title=The Papers of Anthony Clarke, Cape Town Bookseller |journal=Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa |location=Cape Town |publisher=National Library of South Africa |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=3–12}}{{Cite book |last=Havely |first=Nick |title=Apennine Crossings: Travellers on the Edge of Tuscany |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2024 |isbn=9780198882626 |location=Oxford |pages=14 |quote=A British officer, Anthony Clarke of the 1st regiment Royal Horse Artillery, was directing the guns but his memory was troubling him [...]. Clarke’s story dates from some years after the war, when he was running a bookshop in Cape Town...}}{{London Gazette|issue=35665|page=3544|date=13 August 1942}} A gay man, Clarke hailed from Richmond, Surrey,{{Cite web |last=Notin |first=Jean-Christophe |date=28 March 2020 |title=Anthony Clarke, l'officier anglais qui sauva la Résurrection: épisode 5/2 du podcast La Résurrection de Piero Della Francesca |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/une-histoire-particuliere-un-recit-documentaire-en-deux-parties/anthony-clarke-l-officier-anglais-qui-sauva-la-resurrection-1388913 |access-date=11 June 2025 |website=France Culture |language=fr |via=Radio France}} and moved to Cape Town in 1947 to become a journalist for the Cape Times. He had become known for defying orders to bombard the town of Sansepolcro in an effort to preserve Piero della Francesca's fresco The Resurrection during the Italian Campaign in 1944.{{Cite web |last=Willers |first=David |date=9 July 2024 |title=A love letter to Long Street: A reader's impression |url=https://www.litnet.co.za/a-love-letter-to-long-street-a-readers-impression/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241102083617/https://www.litnet.co.za/a-love-letter-to-long-street-a-readers-impression/ |archive-date=2 November 2024 |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=LitNet |issn=1995-5928}} A suburban street in Sansepolcro was named after Clarke, who was granted honorary citizenship from the mayor,{{cite magazine|first=Luca|last=Madrignani|lang=it|date=21 October 2007|title=Insurrezione e lotta armata a Sansepolcro|magazine=Patria Indipendente|pages=25–27|url=http://www.anpi.it/patria_2007/009/25-27_MADRIGNANI.pdf|access-date=11 June 2025|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090711051243/http://www.anpi.it/patria_2007/009/25-27_MADRIGNANI.pdf|archive-date=11 July 2009|quote = Avevano parlato con un capitano che poi, dopo la guerra, si seppe che era un appassionato di Piero Della Francesca, e alla fine ricevette dal sindaco la cittadinanza onoraria|publisher=National Association of Italian Partisans}} and an 18th century print of the same painting remains on display in Clarke's Bookshop. Before becoming a prominent antiquarian auctioneer, Edward Bernardi worked under Clarke as a shop assistant from the 1960s, describing him as a "poet", a "mentor" and a "dear friend."{{Cite journal |last=Bernardi |first=Edward |date=1991 |title=Some reminiscences of an African book auctioneer |journal=Bibliophilia Africana |location=Cape Town |publisher=National Library of South Africa |volume=VI |pages=90–91}}

The bookshop began specialising in Africana books from the 1970s. Amidst strict censorship under South Africa’s apartheid regime, Clarke’s Bookshop also sold books that had been banned by the government.{{cite magazine|title=Clarke's Bookshop: Cape Town|last=Davids|first=Nadia|author-link=Nadia Davids|date=December 2014|pages=69|magazine=Getaway|quote=…a home for books, but also a safe house for ideas (banned books once found refuge)…}} Paul Mills became a co-owner in 1978.{{Cite web |last=Markham |first=Sheila |date=December 2010 |title=Paul Mills |url=https://www.sheila-markham.com/interviews/paul-mills.html |access-date=31 May 2025 |publisher=The Bookdealer |via=Sheila Markham: in conversation |archive-date=2 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602122549/https://www.sheila-markham.com/interviews/paul-mills.html |url-status=live }} Henrietta Dax began working at the business in 1981 shortly before Clarke's death, and later became its sole proprietor in 1998 following Mills's departure.{{Cite web |last=O’Toole |first=Sean |date=7 November 2023 |title=Shelf Reliance |url=https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/henrietta-dax-home-cape-town |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=The World of Interiors |publisher=Condé Nast |issn=0264-083X|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231113034756/https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/henrietta-dax-home-cape-town|archive-date=13 November 2023|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |date=22 September 2016 |title=Legends in Bookselling - Still doing business |url=https://www.sabooksellers.com/legends-bookselling-still-business/ |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=South African Booksellers Association |archive-date=31 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250531112759/https://www.sabooksellers.com/legends-bookselling-still-business/ |url-status=live }} Born in London and raised between the US, France and England, she had previously worked at Stuttafords Bookshop for two years and then at Exclusive Books for another seven years.{{Cite magazine |date=March 2013 |title=Clarke's Bookshop: A treasure-trove of books |url=https://www.sabooksellers.com/wp-content/assets/BookmarkVol33.pdf |access-date=3 June 2025 |magazine=Bookmark |page=18 |volume=33 |archive-date=7 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250607102807/https://www.sabooksellers.com/wp-content/assets/BookmarkVol33.pdf |url-status=live|publisher=South African Booksellers Association }} Her work at Clarke's involved regularly embarking on 4000-mile road trips throughout countries in Southern Africa, where she bought, sold and bartered.{{Cite news |last=Arnold |first=Martin |date=2 March 2000 |title=Making Books; A Literary Peddler Plies the Trade Routes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/02/books/making-books-a-literary-peddler-plies-the-trade-routes.html |access-date=31 May 2025 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602122548/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/02/books/making-books-a-literary-peddler-plies-the-trade-routes.html |url-status=live }} Dax is credited with expanding the business to include new, first-hand books alongside its second-hand material. She also initiated the business's supply of African studies material to various international universities. Clarke's Bookshop has since distributed resources to Columbia University,{{Cite web |title=Africana Librarianship, Book Dealers, Projects & Publishers |url=https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/global/virtual-libraries/african_studies/biblio_info/librarianship.html |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=Columbia University Libraries |archive-date=2 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602122550/https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/global/virtual-libraries/african_studies/biblio_info/librarianship.html |url-status=live }} Yale University,{{Cite web |date=12 January 2022 |title=January's International Bookshop of the Month is Clarke's Bookshop |url=https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2022/01/12/januarys-international-bookshop-of-the-month-clarkes-bookshop-in-cape-town-south-africa/ |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=Yale University Press |quote=We supply books to multiple university libraries with African Studies material, including Yale University Library, which has really helped us through the last few years |archive-date=2 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602122548/https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2022/01/12/januarys-international-bookshop-of-the-month-clarkes-bookshop-in-cape-town-south-africa/ |url-status=live }} the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art,{{Cite web |last=Beale |first=Nigel |date=17 June 2009 |title=The Biblio File hosted by Nigel Beale: Henrietta Dax on Clarke's Bookshop, Cape Town |url=https://thebibliofile.ca/bookseller-henrietta-dax-clarke-s-bookshop-cape-town |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=The Biblio File}} and Leiden University's African Studies Centre. In 1995, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) listed Clarke's Bookshop among the "best dealers" for materials relating to Southern Africa.{{Cite web |last=Kagan |first=Alfred |date=August 1995 |title=Sources for African Language Materials from the Countries of Anglophone Africa - 61st IFLA General Conference |url=https://origin-archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla61/61-kaga.htm |access-date=2 June 2025 |website=International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions |archive-date=17 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617161743/http://origin-archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla61/61-kaga.htm |url-status=live }} The business also supplies provincial libraries within the Western Cape.{{Cite web |last=Mzizi |first=Simangele |date=31 July 2023 |title=Cape Town CBD's best bookish haunts |url=https://www.capetownccid.org/news/cape-town-cbds-best-bookish-haunts |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=Cape Town Central City Improvement District}} It offers new, used, antiquarian and out-of-print Africana books, spanning across genres of fiction, non-fiction, history, art, music, biography and philosophy. The bookshop also stocks old prints and maps dating back to the 16th century.{{Cite web |date=24 April 2023 |title=The new, curious and quintessential bookstores of Cape Town |url=https://www.capetownmagazine.com/best-special-book-stores |access-date=2 June 2025 |website=Cape Town Magazine}}

Facing potential closure after its lease wasn't renewed in two years, the business relocated to another building within the same block in Long Street in 2012.{{Cite news |last=Carpenter |first=Avery |date=14 December 2011 |title=Clarke's writes itself back into Long Street |url=https://iol.co.za/capetimes/clarkes-writes-itself-back-into-long-street-1198485/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525094020/https://iol.co.za/capetimes/clarkes-writes-itself-back-into-long-street-1198485/ |archive-date=25 May 2022 |access-date=2 June 2025 |work=Independent Online}}{{Cite web |last=Meersman |first=Brent |date=16 August 2013 |title=A bookshop's new chapter, different setting |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-16-new-chapter-different-setting/ |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=Mail & Guardian |issn=2075-8383 |archive-date=2 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602122548/https://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-16-new-chapter-different-setting/ |url-status=live }} Due to financial strain amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the bookstore conducted a fundraising auction featuring works by William Kentridge, Jane Alexander, Brett Murray, Sanell Aggenbach, and Penny Siopis among others.{{Cite web |last=Jacobs |first=Kirsten |date=29 May 2020 |title=Clarke's Bookshop runs online auction to keep doors open |url=https://www.capetownetc.com/news/clarkes-bookshop-runs-online-auction-to-keep-doors-open/ |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=Cape Town ETC}} The business also donated new and replacement materials to the Jagger Library for African Studies at the University of Cape Town after it was destroyed by the 2021 Table Mountain fire.{{Cite web |date=April 2022 |title=Jagger Fire Timeline |url=https://lib.uct.ac.za/about-us-one-year-after-fire/jagger-fire-timeline |access-date=2025-06-10 |website=University of Cape Town Libraries}} Having worked Clarke's Bookshop since 2003,{{Cite web |date=18 May 2018 |title=The Bookseller: André Sales – Clarke's Bookshop |url=http://thisisaerodrome.com/the-bookseller-andre-sales-clarkes-books/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922182910/http://thisisaerodrome.com/the-bookseller-andre-sales-clarkes-books/ |archive-date=22 September 2018 |access-date=2 June 2025 |website=Aerodrome}} Andre Sales became co-director of the business in 2020.{{Cite web |last1=Shoba |first1=Sandisiwe |last2=Simelane |first2=Bheki C. |date=31 August 2020 |title=Covid-19 lockdown impact: A tale of two streets – Long Street and Vilakazi Street |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-31-covid-19-lockdown-impact-a-tale-of-two-streets-long-street-and-vilakazi-street/ |access-date=2 June 2025 |website=Daily Maverick |archive-date=7 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250607102821/https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-31-covid-19-lockdown-impact-a-tale-of-two-streets-long-street-and-vilakazi-street/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Oberholzer |first=Sanet |date=28 May 2020 |title=Clarke's Bookshop fights to keep its doors open |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/life/books/2020-05-28-clarkes-bookshop-fights-to-keep-its-doors-open/ |access-date=31 May 2025 |work=BusinessLIVE |archive-date=2 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602122549/https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/life/books/2020-05-28-clarkes-bookshop-fights-to-keep-its-doors-open/ |url-status=live }} Politicians such as the current President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa{{Cite web |last=Mitchell |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Mitchell |date=25 February 2020 |title=Commons Diary: Andrew Mitchell |url=https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/commons-diary-andrew-mitchell |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602085211/https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/commons-diary-andrew-mitchell |archive-date=2 June 2025 |access-date=2 June 2025 |website=PoliticsHome}}{{Cite web |last=Pople |first=Laetitia |date=13 May 2020 |title=Veiling help Clarke's Books in Langstraat, Kaapstad |url=https://www.netwerk24.com/netwerk24/veiling-help-clarkes-books-in-langstraat-kaapstad-20200512 |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=Netwerk24 |language=af-ZA |archive-date=7 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250607102757/https://www.netwerk24.com/netwerk24/veiling-help-clarkes-books-in-langstraat-kaapstad-20200512 |url-status=live }} and former Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe are frequent customers at the bookstore.

• 2002 – Merit Award (South African Booksellers Association){{Cite news |date=November 2002 |title=The Dressing Station voted tops by SA booksellers |url=https://d7.westerncape.gov.za/sites/www.westerncape.gov.za/files/documents/2005/1/capelib_nov2002_02-4-to-7.pdf |access-date=2 June 2025 |work=Sunday Argus |page=5 |via=The Cape Provincial Library Service |quote=Merit awards went to two specialist booksellers: Clarke's Bookshop in Cape Town for its focus on special interest books and its success in developing an export business... |archive-date=2 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602093819/https://d7.westerncape.gov.za/sites/www.westerncape.gov.za/files/documents/2005/1/capelib_nov2002_02-4-to-7.pdf |url-status=live }}
• 2009 – No. 4 on 'The 10 Best Bookshops in the World' (Irish Independent)
• 2016 – Henrietta Dax awarded 'Lifetime’s Contribution to Bookselling in South Africa' (South African Booksellers Association){{cite web|url=https://pensouthafrica.co.za/henrietta-dax-recognised-for-her-contribution-to-bookselling-in-south-africa/|title=Henrietta Dax Recognised for Her Contribution to Bookselling in South Africa|date=31 August 2016|accessdate=2 June 2025|website=PEN South Africa}}{{Cite web |date=1 September 2016 |title=New Sefika Award honours legends in bookselling industry, new author |url=https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/367/150172.html |access-date=31 May 2025 |website=Bizcommunity}}

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• {{official|https://www.clarkesbooks.co.za/}}

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Category:Independent bookshops of South Africa

Category:Antiquarian booksellers

Category:Retail companies established in 1957

Category:Bookstores established in the 20th century

Category:1957 establishments in South Africa

Category:Cultural organisations based in South Africa

Category:Companies based in Cape Town

Category:Retail companies of South Africa

Category:Book selling websites

Category:African studies