Elisabeth Anderson and the Centre for the Book

Elisabeth Anderson, who among many other things was Head of the Centre for the Book in Cape Town passed away at the end of March. The memorial honouring her and her life was held recently. It was moving to hear of her family and life in Jane Furse. And to see colleagues I’d worked with at the Centre for the Book in those years. Mark Espin, Nonikiwe Mashologu, Vanessa Badroodien (the first Director of the Cape Town Book Fair). I hugged them with joy. Memorials are strange affairs, a celebration and a time of reflection and sadness. I loved Elisabeth, she was a wonderful boss and friend. She could also be deeply infuriating, although I cannot remember any of the specifics. I left the memorial wondering how she managed it all. She had more energy and drive than anyone I’ve ever met.

I wrote a tribute to her and her work at the Centre for the Book, and as Executive Director of the Book Development Foundation, which worked alongside the Cfb. Litnet kindly published the tribute here.

While researching Elisabeth’s life and work online for my tribute, I was struck by a few things, one is how Elisabeth retired just before social media took off. She retired around the time Facebook began to be a thing here. Her work is not as well documented as it would be if she was retiring in 2025. There are many things she was involved in and we at the Centre for the Book worked on, which are not easily found online. For example we worked with Terry Bell on a campaign to remove VAT from books. As you can probably guess this wasn’t successful, we still have VAT on books.

She was a tireless advocate for reading, for children learning to read, for how to teach them to read, for what is needed to turn children into readers, and for what the benefits are for those who are avid readers.

I created two email groups that shared news and information about South African books, literary events, issues, conferences etc. The first one was general and the second one was the Children’s Literature Network.

I used BCC as the way to communicate with all the members of the groups, and cut and pasted the news that people wanted to share with each other. It was a free service offered by the Centre for the Book. We didn’t charge for advertising or posting on the lists. I can’t remember how we came to do this work, but it seemed like a natural evolution of our work. I know Elisabeth was enthusiastic about the groups. And I seem to remember she printed out each one and filed them.

We also celebrated World Book Day and she was an enthusiastic proponent of this campaign. We had posters made of people reading and supplied these to all public libraries around the country. Any bookstore that wanted a poster was welcome to have one. We gave radio interviews, and sent press releases to the media, we wrote to and called bookstores to ask them what they had planned for World Book Day. On the day the Main Hall would be filled with children listening to stories. Each child would be given a snack bag, a juice and a book.

What I also remember is how the Centre for the Book was always busy with events and people, famous and ordinary. I remember a breakfast with the Tutus, where I got to sit at the same table as them. I remember at least two ANC ministers who were also poets reciting their work at different events. The building was often rented out for film shoots, we had the likes of Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Leonardo di Caprio in the corridors. And the likes of Laura Bush, Barack Obama (when he was a senator), giving speeches.

One of the early writers’ festivals organised by Mark Espin at the Centre for the Book.

Something that upset me as I tried to research the work of the Centre for the Book during Elisabeth’s tenure, was being reminded how the powers that be at the National Library erased her and her work. She had a fraught relationship with the National Library powers. When she retired at 65, still full of energy and vision, she seemed to disappear from public life without a trace. The tribute I wrote for Litnet is a small way to acknowledge Elisabeth’s legacy.