"Provides an insight into the early work of Lovedale Press in South Africa from 1823 onwards, when Lovedale was the focal point of the literate Christian culture that emerged among the Xhosa in the Eastern Cape region, and which up until the turn of the century concentrated on evangelical and educational texts. Describes the change in the press and its publication policies after R.H.W. Shepherd took charge of its operations in 1929, until his departure in 1950. Contains five case studies of editorial interference culled from the detailed records of the Lovedale Press. Peires contends that while the Lovedale Press undoubtedly published manuscripts in Xhosa which would otherwise never have been published, “the effective monopoly of the Lovedale Press [...] stifled the development of a meaningful vernacular historiography." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2132)