Geoffrey Klass, extraordinary bookseller of Johannesburg, passed away on 27th February after a short illness. His death was unexpected.

Geoff and his brother Jonathan founded Collectors Treasury. This was truly a treasure house of books and antiques. Over five decades, the shop rapidly became a Johannesburg institution - an important fixture in our city’s landscape. Geoff knew everyone of importance in the city. He had an intimate and lived history of our strange mining city. The  city  shaped his career and being a Johannesburg man defined him. Geoff could have made a life in books in London or New York.

 

Geoff and Jonathan Klass (The Heritage Portal)

 

Geoff was born in 1948 to Dr Max Klass, a psychiatrist, and his wife Maisie (nee Goldberg) in Johannesburg. Geoff’s grandparents, Solomon and Zelda Klass were immigrants to South Africa from Lithuania. The grandparents sold everything from ginger beer to baby clothes and made a decent life for their five children. Their ambition was to educate their children. Solomon bought property and acquired the Johannesburg Ritz Hotel and later owned a residential Hotel in Berea. For a time he was the owner of the Radium Beer Hall. The family became hotel keepers.

 

Radium Beer Hall (The Heritage Portal)

 

Max was their eldest son and qualified as a doctor and then a psychiatrist. The family story of hardworking immigrant success and upward mobility carried on through the generations. Geoff attributed his love of books and book collecting to his father. Books were part of the family home in Doveton Road in Parktown West. Maisie was an avid collector of antiques.

Geoff was one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. He was encyclopaedic in his knowledge and his reach across disciplines. He should have been a professor of the philosophy science or the history of medicines. He matriculated at Parktown Boys High and went on to read for a BSc at Wits University graduating in 1972. His next degree was a B Phil degree, and his interests then focused on medical history; but the academic trajectory was too narrow for his exploding mind. He was often scathing about the confines of university disciplines and in that sense his mind was untrained because he refused to concentrate on only one discipline or specialism. He was ever hungry for new knowledge. He declined the opportunity to study on a fellowship, for a PhD in Chicago. It was a grave loss for the academic world.

 

Wits University (The Heritage Portal)

 

His career choice was to start Collectors Treasury in 1974 together with his mother Maisie and brother Jonathan at 44 Stanley Avenue in a small suburb called Braamfontein Werf. The old Atlas Bakery, John Orr High School and the Gas Works are nearby. Later the Mail and Guardian popped up around the corner. This shop rapidly became an emporium of second-hand antiquarian nonfiction books, matched by a medley of collectables - porcelain, glass, jewellery, art works etc. In those days Stanley Avenue was not the fashionable cluster of quaint shops and shaded garden restaurants ; it was a maze of gritty garages of the Automobile Association and back workshops. The rent was R385 a month.

Geoff and I first met in the French prelim class at Wits – we were both there because “just maybe a reading knowledge of French could be useful for budding bibliophiles as well as fun”. Neither of us progressed much beyond the “deuxième étage", but the connection led to visiting the new shop and meeting Mrs Klass and Jonathan. The shop was close to Wits so it was often a huge temptation to drop in on my way home. I could easily spend my first pay cheque of R400 a month on R5 and R10 books at Collectors Treasury. It’s been a 50 year friendship.
 
For Geoff, every serious book mattered seriously, and he was always ready to give freely of his knowledge to his customers. He loved sharing his erudition and wide reading on editions, authors and the byways of books. He could tell you about any author in any and every field. You had only to ask, and Geoff launched into a monologue on authors, their connections and relationships, politicians, heroes and rogues. He was like a prize racehorse in the book stakes. I absorbed the many book lessons Geoff taught. He even introduced me to antique maps.

The Klass collecting appetite quickly outgrew the first 300 square meter shop. Collectors Treasury chose to move to the centre of the city, to Pritchard House in about 1979. Close to the law courts in Von Wielligh Street, there was a different ambience with many lawyers becoming customers. The building and the signage showed that Collectors Treasury was a permanent fixture in the inner city. It was here that I bought numerous Folio Society books at R8 apiece.

Then in 1984 the business moved to 63 Rissik Street, Bethlehem house (the erstwhile heritage status Trades Hall of 1922 Strike fame). Owned by Ronnie Bethlehem, the building was later bought by an insurance company and with only four floors, again Collectors Treasury outgrew the premises.

 

Trades Hall (The Heritage Portal)

 

Those were happy years when I bought a Royal Worcester green dragon china dinner service much egged on by Mrs Klass (we still own this gorgeous set). I remember delaying the start of a holiday to collect some obscure series of Scottish antiquarian books, 10 volumes of the Third Spalding Club. This probably set me back about R200. That only Geoff would know about the backstory, and we were the only ones who understood why this was an important haul out in South Africa.

I remember Geoff’s mother Maisie with great fondness, because she was the ultimate caring mother, protective and proud of her two sons. I was a married young woman, but this did not stop Mrs Klass asking me if I did not know a clone of myself as a suitable marriageable prospect for Geoffrey. She wanted a loving practical girl, who she liked but who was in tune with Geoff’s mind and had a passion for  books. I think Geoff ultimately found such a partner in Gundi.

In 1991 the Klass family finally bought their own building at 244 Commissioner Street, City and Suburban - in inner old Johannesburg and now part of the revitalised Maboneng. It was an old straightforward factory type of building on the corner of Commissioner and Phillips Streets - face brick over much of the floors, steel windows, glass, walls, and a narrow doorway. It was originally known as Brivik House, a functional unpretentious late Art Deco building. It was built in the 1940s or early 1950s and was probably a clothing factory.

 

Collectors Treasury Building (The Heritage Portal)

 

The Klass family renamed the building CTP House and pasted up striking yellow and black signs. The inner city with its persistent miner camp feel always appealed to Geoff. There were eight floors to fill with books and treasures. The website proudly punted Collectors Treasury as "now housed in an 8 storey building, Collectors Treasury is the largest used and rare book shop in Africa, and in the Southern Hemisphere, having 2,000,000 plus items on hand.”

In addition to books, the stock extended to antique maps, old engravings and prints, printed ephemera, periodicals, newspapers and photographica. They also curated and dealt in records, with a stock of over 500,000 vinyl and 78rpm discs. Beyond the vinyls they also promoted their extensive range of small antiques and collectables, with strong emphasis on the decorative arts 1870-1970, glassware, ceramics and porcelain. Or you could spend hours flicking through boxes of old Johannesburg postcards. This treasure trove was and still is the most eccentric, quirkiest bookshop in South Africa.

One reviewer on Trip Advisor describes Collectors Treasury as a book lovers paradise: “Arriving at the Treasury one half expects that it's an abandoned building. When you get inside though, it’s a readers paradise unlike anything I've ever seen.”

Over time and the coming of the internet, a large part of the business went online but the visit to a shop was a magnet for any bibliophile. Every book mattered. Geoffrey’s approach was to value his books, as they grew to the two million mark at international benchmarks – he saw books as the storehouses of civilizations, that transcended national boundaries. Every book had a value and a desirable price somewhere in the world and Geoff made that connection. It was not his fault that South African book collectors were thin on the ground and if they wanted a book they should be taught to value and treasure a book. A glance at the Collectors Treasury website covers books about Kipling, Vladimir Tretchikoff,  James Joyce, Ian Fleming, Lewis Caroll, Rhodesian Mining, Grand Prix racing, martial arts and Old Dundee – all rather eclectic, eccentric and a fascinating mix.

The books had a life of their own - they filled shelves, lined walls in piles, bulged from windows and sat perilously on the steps of narrowed stairways. Books became crazy towers to a point of dangerous unstable heights. The antique Lalique glassware had me drooling over the quality of the finely chosen pieces.

 

Towers of Books at Collectors Treasury (Mark Straw)

This was the only bookshop where a visit became an adventure, involving some risk taking. There was that avalanche of books likely to cascade down on your head as one tried to winkle out an enticing title sixth from the bottom of the pile. Or you had to avoid falling down the book heavy staircases to the basement. The basement always drew me because this is where I knew I would buy travel, Johannesburg books, biographies, architecture and could always be sure of a good selection of Folio society books to entrap me.

Geoff shook his head ruefully when a novice customer enthused: “Have your read every book in your shop”. Geoff’s only possible answer to that question was: “No, but I do know what each book is about!”. He could always pinpoint a specific request remarkably quickly and then explain the differences between the first and the second edition and ask if you have read another title by the same author.

The coming of the internet changed the business model, and more and more books were sold online with the customer base becoming international. Book parcels were couriered around the world, but at the same time international visitors became more frequent as Collectors Treasury became a magnet for bibliophiles passing through Johannesburg.

There was another side to Geoff – he was always interested in politics. He was a liberal in his philosophy and against the National Party apartheid government. Geoff was involved in opposition politics for nearly two decades from 1978 to 1995 (he was Chair of Dr. Zac de Beer's constituency) and again from 2005 to the present. He was a Chairperson of the Northern Areas Group (a large Ratepayer and Resident organisation covering 9 suburban associations) - but sadly this was forced into dissolution following a court case with the City of Johannesburg. More recently Geoff became a stalwart of the Community Policing movement in Johannesburg, chairing the Parkview precinct in Johannesburg. He often texted me or phoned me about issues with heritage or a city state of affairs dimension.

Geoff was the founding member and first Chairman of the South African Bookdealers Association (SABDA), the official body for out-of-print book dealers in Southern Africa. Geoff’s vision was to improve standards of professional service to customers and allow members to speak with one voice on matters of common concern.
 
I have a fond memory of taking Mitchell Wolfson (Mickey) to visit Collectors Treasury. Mitchell, an American and founder of the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami squeezed himself onto a chair amid the books in the basement and had Geoff run round and bring him perhaps 200 delectable books in half an hour of which Mickey then bought 80 percent. Geoff had the uncanny knack of knowing precisely what his customers wanted. All of Mickey’s purchases were packed up and dispatched by courier to Floria, USA.

 

Another view of Collectors Treasury (The Heritage Portal)

 

On another occasion, when I took visiting friends to visit Geoff and Collectors Treasury, I spotted an Irma Stern exhibition catalogue but at R 1200 it was beyond my budget. I let it be. But as we were departing the shop, Geoff rushed down the stairs and handed me the Irma Stern book softly whispering: “I think you left this book behind“. He had just given me a thank you present in the nicest possible way.

The last conversation I had with Geoff was about the likely presence of Zama Zama miners burrowing and blasting at night, undetected under inner city buildings and the Collectors Treasury book emporium in particular. He thought I would have the answers because my most expensive purchase (at R 10 000)  was the 3-volume set of  C S Goldmann books on the Witwatersrand gold mines in 1895/6. Geoff explained that he was worried as it must be secret illicit mining that had caused book stacks to collapse mysteriously in the dead of night and he had book heaps to clear in the mornings. Geoff wanted the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation to act – we had to do something! I managed to produce a newspaper cutting saved from the 1980s and a teaching aid, that showed indeed that the building line height of buildings to the South of Johannesburg had been restricted because of underground gold mining in mines such as City and Suburban, Village Main, Wemer, Village Deep Salisbury Claims, Ferreira’s mine and City Deep. We can never forget that the city is built on hollowed out, defunct gold mines now abandoned. Why we were having this conversation had deep meaning for both of us.

 

Piles of books at Collector's Treasury (The Heritage Portal)

 

I reflected on my book purchase moving from the R5 category to the R10 000 and life lived in books by Geoff and myself for half a century. His passing marks the end of an era and I shall miss him. My regret was that Geoff never published his memoirs, nor did he capture all that knowledge set in his prodigious brain on paper. I only hope that something can be found that he wrote about his city, his books and his life.

Geoff is survived by his brother Jonathan and sister-in-law Jenny, niece and nephew Mathew and Rebecca, and by his beloved partner, Gundi Weinick, who was the widow of another special Johannesburg book dealer, Wolf Weinick. Gundi strangely has her own bookshop nestled in the new 44  Stanley Avenue complex. We wish Jonathan and Jenny every success in continuing the Collectors Treasury bookshop. Continuity in the book life will be the most important memorial for Geoffrey. May memories serve as our strength.

Click here to read tributes from The Heritage Community.

I thank Peter Maher, Marc Latilla, Mark  Straw, S J De Klerk, James Findlay, Ron Levine and Keith Munro for their helpful comments.

Kathy Munro is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. She enjoyed a long career as an academic and in management at Wits University. She trained as an economic historian. She is an enthusiastic book person and has built her own somewhat eclectic book collection over 40 years. Her interests cover Africana, Johannesburg history, history, art history, travel, business and banking histories. She researches and writes on historical architecture and heritage matters. She is a member of the Board of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation and is a docent at the Wits Arts Museum. She is currently working on a couple of projects on Johannesburg architects and is researching South African architects, war cemeteries and memorials. Kathy is a member of the online book community the Library thing and recommends this cataloging website and worldwide network as a book lover's haven. She is also the Chairperson of HASA.

Sources

• The best  and most  interesting account of the Klass brothers Jonathan and Geoffrey was written by Mike Alfred back in 2005/06 for a book  Mike was compiling on Joburg personalities. This piece was published as a chapter on the Heritage Portal in 2020 and can be read here.
• S A  Jewish Report. 16 August 2018 The Klass Brothers Seven Storeys of Cultural History. 
• Collectors Treasury Website
• In Africa and Beyond website - Collectors Treasury.
• Linkedin profile of Geoffrey Klass
• A Treasure Chest of Books in Johannesburg, Joburg .co.za website