servations and theories with attractive clarity in popular form.
Today when ecology, the population explosion, environmental pollution and the study of animal life are evoking so much interest and concern, it is interesting to find that Marais' work foreshadowed much that is now considered as new and that he based his views on personal research and was not merely a collector of other researchers' conclusions to produce theories of questionable validity.
How wide the range of his interest was can be gauged from the diversity of subjects dealt with in this book. Even where it may appear that Marais contradicts himself or may be mistaken, the presentation of his subject matter is always a stimulus to the interest and thought of his readers.
Many of the articles here collected were, as mentioned in the foreword to My Friends the Baboons, but sparks from the anvil on which Eugène Marais was fashioning his later published books.
After almost forty years there has been an upsurge of interest in the works of Marais and in himself, stimulated no doubt by the re-publication of his books, The Soul of the White Ant, My Friends the Baboons and the recent issue of The Soul of the Ape. To cater for this interest, articles which he contributed to English and Afrikaans journals and newspapers many years ago have been collected for publication. Those that appeared in Afrikaans have been specially translated; the source of each publication being noted.’
Die meeste van die essays in The Road to Waterberg is deur my versamel, as uitvloeisel van my navorsing oor Eugène Marais se lewe. Die bundel het in 1972 by Human & Rousseau verskyn, twee jaar voor Die Groot Verlange, Marais se lewensverhaal.
'n Aantal artikels in die oorspronklike publikasie The Road to Waterberg is uit Afrikaans vertaal en is dus nie in die Versamelde Werke opgeneem nie.
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