Capri. Materials for a Description of the Island. Florence: G. Orioli, 1930.
First edition, number 32 of 525 copies. Signed and numbered by the author on limitation page.
Octavo. xvi, 365 pp., including index. With black and white frontispiece , two color plates, 20 black and white plates, and several tipped-in text illustrations. Quarter blue cloth over blue boards, gilt-lettered blue morocco spine label. Sunning and light soiling to extremities, some edge-wear, spine label partially detached. Still a good copy, partially unopened.
First edition of this classic travel book, signed and numbered by the author.
George Norman Douglas (1868-1952), known as Norman Douglas, was a popular British novelist and travel writer. Although Douglas did achieve success during his lifetime, he routinely found himself mired in scandal that threatened to overshadow his very real talent. In 1916 he found himself arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a sixteen year old boy, the first of several legal battles over his alleged pedophilia. On the advice of friends (including author Joseph Conrad) he skipped bail and lived in exile in Capri for many years. Douglas made light of the incident when he wrote: "Norman Douglas of Capri, and of Naples and Florence, was formerly of England, which he fled during the war to avoid persecution for kissing a boy and giving him some cakes and a shilling."
Douglas' legal and personal troubles notwithstanding, he was an extremely popular and influential author - his London Street Games had a significant influence on Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Although he is best remembered for his 1917 novel South Wind (set on a thinly disguised version of Capri), many critics feel that his travel books (including Capri) actually contain his best work. They are known for their erudition, unconventionality, and accomplished prose.
Mullin, Katherine. “Douglas, (George) Norman (1868–1952).†In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
ID:
4281
$
400