“The author of this history, who is eight years old …” So begins the preface that introduces the youngest published American writer on record.

The Boer War, A History , printed in 1902, is a forgotten but still unique treasure of the Rare Book Division in the Library of Congress. The unsigned preface is obviously the contribution of a pedantic adult: it lacks the charm of the mistakes the work itself contains in abundance, such as “new commers,” “Britian sent trupes.” “Atention,” “Calvery.” “he might ot had the gold …” According to the writer of tlie introduction, “the humane purpose; for which this book was written, and the perseverance and originality of the author, will commend it to all readers of history.” He goes on to explain the circumstance’s in which the book was produced:

The author has been, since the war began in South Africa, an ardent admirer and partisan of the Boers, and this in spite of the fact that all his immediate family favor the British cause. The reported sufferings of Boer women and children in African concentration camps and the destitution of Boer prisoners in the Bermudas aroused his sympathy and the desire to do something to relieve their condition. He determined to write a history e>f the war with the avowed purpose of sending the money, which he should receive from its sale, to the Boer Relief Committee. He industriously gathered his facts, and day after day, tor nearly two months, wrote out what he had read and heard together with his opinions and conclusions. It is needless to say to one who reads this volume that throughout his labors, the author has been entirely free from suggestion or correction in regard to subject, language or arrangement.

Chronologies by the young author follow, with description of developments, all laced with frequently biting commentary. Sample excerpts include:

The British did not know at first that the Boers were going to be so hard to conquer or they would not have started the war but now they think that they cant surrender to such a little country. England will gain very little by the war for it will cost a gret deal to run the mines and the war has already cost England 1,000,000,000 Dollars and the war may not be near an end yet.

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The British found that if they could not fight the Boers out of their land they would burn them out, so they began to burn the land, but they could not burn the houses and have the poor women and children starve to death, so they had to huddle-them altogether and tried to feed them as well as they could so that they could get the land. This camp where they kept the women and children is called a concentration camp. It sounds very bad to think