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Douglas & South Wind (fwd)
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From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
For those on the list, like myself, unacquainted with Norman Douglas here is
some information garnered on the web (by the way, South Wind can be
downloaded for free from Abacci.com)
Douglas, Norman. (1868 - 1952) www.LitEncyc.com
Domain: Literature, History, Science . Status: Major.
Novelist, Essayist, Antiquary, Autobiographer, Editor, Geologist,
Historian, Humorist, Literary Critic, Man of Letters, Pamphleteer, Scholar,
Scientist, Story writer, Travel Writer, Zoologist
Active 1886 - 1952 in England, Britain, Italy, Austria, Continental
Europe, Europe
This essay written by Grove Koger, Boise Public Library, Idaho
Works by Douglas Back to Home New Search
Norman Douglas was born on December 8, 1868, in Thüringen in the Vorarlberg,
the mountainous, westernmost region of Austria, into a predominantly
Scottish family that had settled there to run the region¹s cotton mills.
Although Douglas was only five when his father Sholto died, he seems to have
idolized him, adopting Sholto¹s enthusiasm for natural history and the
out-of-doors as his own.
Douglas spent his early school years at several British schools, all of
which he loathed. As a result of his unhappiness, he was allowed to attend
the Karlsruhe gymnasium in what was then the Grand Duchy of Baden. There,
despite having developed a ³healthy contempt for all education,² he studied
widely and enthusiastically, mastering several languages. His interest in
natural history had thrived, and his first published, albeit brief,
work‹²;The Variation of Plumage in the Corvidae² (1886)‹appeared in the
Zoologist when he was only seventeen. A brief visit to the Bay of Naples and
the Sorrento Peninsula in 1888 proved propitious, for Douglas was to spend
much of his later life there and was to celebrate the region as ³Siren
Land.²
During the following years Douglas lived in London but travelled abroad
frequently. He continued to produce scientific papers, and a private
reprinting of one of these, Zur Fauna Santorins (1892), constitutes his
first separate publication. Douglas had entered the foreign service in 1893
and was posted to St. Petersburg the following year. Yet he left the
service‹and Russia‹abruptly in 1896, apparently as the result of an
indiscreet love affair (or affairs).
In 1897 Douglas settled in Naples, where he purchased and refurbished a
villa. He married his cousin Elizabeth FitzGibbon in 1898, and within two
years found himself the father of two sons. Douglas and Elizabeth also
produced a collection of stories; entitled Unprofessional Tales (1901), the
volume appeared under the pseudonym ³Normyx² and sold very few copies. When
Douglas and Elizabeth divorced in 1903, Douglas relocated to nearby Capri,
where he researched and wrote a series of pamphlets on various aspects of
the island¹s geography and history. As his financial situation worsened, he
also began selling travel articles to English periodicals.
Despite his fascination with the Mediterranean world, Douglas made London
his base from 1910 to 1917, placing articles with ever-increasing frequency,
befriending such figures as Joseph Conrad, and eventually editing
(1912-1916) for Ford Madox Ford at the English Review. During this period he
also published three highly regarded travel books. The first of these, Siren
Land (1911), drew in part upon his Capri pamphlets. Fountains in the Sand
(1912) described his 1910 visit to Tunisia. Old Calabria (1915) grew out of
several tours of southernmost Italy, the ³Magna Graecia² of the ancients,
which was then little known and difficult of access. Douglas concluded this
last volume with a statement that might well stand as his credo as man,
writer and traveller: ³From these brown stones that seam the tranquil
Ionian, from this gracious solitude, [the sage] can carve out, and bear away
into the cheerful din of cities, the rudiments of something clean and
veracious and wholly terrestrial‹some tonic philosophy that shall foster
sunny mischiefs and farewell regret.²
A far different book, London Street Games, appeared in 1916. Based on close
observations of children¹s games in the capital, the volume appeared,
perhaps not coincidentally, at about the same time as a second crisis in
Douglas¹s life. In late 1916 he was arrested for sexual misconduct with a
boy and the following year fled England to escape trial. The man who had
been a thoroughgoing (one might easily say indefatigable) heterosexual was
now devoting most of his attentions to young men and boys.
Despite difficulties in his personal life, Douglas enjoyed a banner year in
1917, seeing his novel South Wind published to enthusiastic reviews. Set on
Nepenthe‹an imaginary island much like Capri‹the novel brought together a
colourful cast of characters and described the liberalizing effect of the
island¹s climate and mores upon an English bishop. For the generation then
approaching adulthood, South Wind represented the ultimate in
sophistication, and the book sold accordingly. Douglas went on to publish
two more novels, They Went (1920) and In the Beginning (1928), both of them
mythological fantasies, but neither proved as popular as their famous
predecessor. More successful were the travel books Alone (1921), which was
based on Douglas¹s excursions in central Italy during the war years, and
Together (1923), which described his return to the Vorarlberg with a young
companion. The former was more conversational in tone than the works that
had come before, and apparently was Douglas¹s favourite.
In 1922 Douglas had settled in Florence, where with the help of bookseller
Giuseppe (²;Pino²;) Orioli he began private publication of books for sale to
wealthy friends and collectors. One of the first of these was the pamphlet
D.H. Lawrence and Maurice Magnus: A Please for Better Manners (1924), a
volley in the running feud that Douglas carried on with Lawrence. Far more
substantial was Capri: Materials for a Description of the Island (1930),
which collected his pamphlets from the early part of the century. Other such
publications included Birds and Beasts of the Greek Anthology (1927), the
delightful Some Limericks (1928), and an essay on aphrodisiacs entitled
Paneros (1930).
Douglas produced an informal autobiography in Looking Back (1933), in which
he commented on visiting cards he had‹he said‹accumulated over the past five
decades. Another scandal forced the ageing writer to quit Italy in 1937, and
he managed to return to that country and his beloved Capri only in 1946. The
last work to appear during his lifetime was Footnote on Capri, an essay
written to accompany a selection of photographs. Douglas died February 7,
1952, apparently by his own hand‹a fitting exit for the man who had once
wondered, ³Why prolong life save to prolong pleasure?²
Norman Douglas produced one of the key English novels of the 1910s in South
Wind (1917), while his travel books, especially Old Calabria, can stand as
models of the genre, displaying their author¹s wit, lightly worn erudition,
hatred of cant, unapologetic hedonism, and reverence for the physical world.
Works by Douglas Back to Home New Search
Website Links:
This article is provided by and copyright to ©The Literary Encyclopedia at
www.LitEncyc.com. Articles from The Literary Encyclopedia may be called into
non-profit internet sites using direct hyperlinks without charge but not
otherwise reproduced. To insert such hyperlinks, read our "How to Use"
document on our home page. No other non-profit use is allowed. For insertion
into commercial publication a formal licence must be obtained from
Editors@LitEncyc.com.
For those on the list, like myself, unacquainted with Norman Douglas here is
some information garnered on the web (by the way, South Wind can be
downloaded for free from Abacci.com)
Douglas, Norman. (1868 - 1952) www.LitEncyc.com
Domain: Literature, History, Science . Status: Major.
Novelist, Essayist, Antiquary, Autobiographer, Editor, Geologist,
Historian, Humorist, Literary Critic, Man of Letters, Pamphleteer, Scholar,
Scientist, Story writer, Travel Writer, Zoologist
Active 1886 - 1952 in England, Britain, Italy, Austria, Continental
Europe, Europe
This essay written by Grove Koger, Boise Public Library, Idaho
Works by Douglas Back to Home New Search
Norman Douglas was born on December 8, 1868, in Thüringen in the Vorarlberg,
the mountainous, westernmost region of Austria, into a predominantly
Scottish family that had settled there to run the region¹s cotton mills.
Although Douglas was only five when his father Sholto died, he seems to have
idolized him, adopting Sholto¹s enthusiasm for natural history and the
out-of-doors as his own.
Douglas spent his early school years at several British schools, all of
which he loathed. As a result of his unhappiness, he was allowed to attend
the Karlsruhe gymnasium in what was then the Grand Duchy of Baden. There,
despite having developed a ³healthy contempt for all education,² he studied
widely and enthusiastically, mastering several languages. His interest in
natural history had thrived, and his first published, albeit brief,
work‹²;The Variation of Plumage in the Corvidae² (1886)‹appeared in the
Zoologist when he was only seventeen. A brief visit to the Bay of Naples and
the Sorrento Peninsula in 1888 proved propitious, for Douglas was to spend
much of his later life there and was to celebrate the region as ³Siren
Land.²
During the following years Douglas lived in London but travelled abroad
frequently. He continued to produce scientific papers, and a private
reprinting of one of these, Zur Fauna Santorins (1892), constitutes his
first separate publication. Douglas had entered the foreign service in 1893
and was posted to St. Petersburg the following year. Yet he left the
service‹and Russia‹abruptly in 1896, apparently as the result of an
indiscreet love affair (or affairs).
In 1897 Douglas settled in Naples, where he purchased and refurbished a
villa. He married his cousin Elizabeth FitzGibbon in 1898, and within two
years found himself the father of two sons. Douglas and Elizabeth also
produced a collection of stories; entitled Unprofessional Tales (1901), the
volume appeared under the pseudonym ³Normyx² and sold very few copies. When
Douglas and Elizabeth divorced in 1903, Douglas relocated to nearby Capri,
where he researched and wrote a series of pamphlets on various aspects of
the island¹s geography and history. As his financial situation worsened, he
also began selling travel articles to English periodicals.
Despite his fascination with the Mediterranean world, Douglas made London
his base from 1910 to 1917, placing articles with ever-increasing frequency,
befriending such figures as Joseph Conrad, and eventually editing
(1912-1916) for Ford Madox Ford at the English Review. During this period he
also published three highly regarded travel books. The first of these, Siren
Land (1911), drew in part upon his Capri pamphlets. Fountains in the Sand
(1912) described his 1910 visit to Tunisia. Old Calabria (1915) grew out of
several tours of southernmost Italy, the ³Magna Graecia² of the ancients,
which was then little known and difficult of access. Douglas concluded this
last volume with a statement that might well stand as his credo as man,
writer and traveller: ³From these brown stones that seam the tranquil
Ionian, from this gracious solitude, [the sage] can carve out, and bear away
into the cheerful din of cities, the rudiments of something clean and
veracious and wholly terrestrial‹some tonic philosophy that shall foster
sunny mischiefs and farewell regret.²
A far different book, London Street Games, appeared in 1916. Based on close
observations of children¹s games in the capital, the volume appeared,
perhaps not coincidentally, at about the same time as a second crisis in
Douglas¹s life. In late 1916 he was arrested for sexual misconduct with a
boy and the following year fled England to escape trial. The man who had
been a thoroughgoing (one might easily say indefatigable) heterosexual was
now devoting most of his attentions to young men and boys.
Despite difficulties in his personal life, Douglas enjoyed a banner year in
1917, seeing his novel South Wind published to enthusiastic reviews. Set on
Nepenthe‹an imaginary island much like Capri‹the novel brought together a
colourful cast of characters and described the liberalizing effect of the
island¹s climate and mores upon an English bishop. For the generation then
approaching adulthood, South Wind represented the ultimate in
sophistication, and the book sold accordingly. Douglas went on to publish
two more novels, They Went (1920) and In the Beginning (1928), both of them
mythological fantasies, but neither proved as popular as their famous
predecessor. More successful were the travel books Alone (1921), which was
based on Douglas¹s excursions in central Italy during the war years, and
Together (1923), which described his return to the Vorarlberg with a young
companion. The former was more conversational in tone than the works that
had come before, and apparently was Douglas¹s favourite.
In 1922 Douglas had settled in Florence, where with the help of bookseller
Giuseppe (²;Pino²;) Orioli he began private publication of books for sale to
wealthy friends and collectors. One of the first of these was the pamphlet
D.H. Lawrence and Maurice Magnus: A Please for Better Manners (1924), a
volley in the running feud that Douglas carried on with Lawrence. Far more
substantial was Capri: Materials for a Description of the Island (1930),
which collected his pamphlets from the early part of the century. Other such
publications included Birds and Beasts of the Greek Anthology (1927), the
delightful Some Limericks (1928), and an essay on aphrodisiacs entitled
Paneros (1930).
Douglas produced an informal autobiography in Looking Back (1933), in which
he commented on visiting cards he had‹he said‹accumulated over the past five
decades. Another scandal forced the ageing writer to quit Italy in 1937, and
he managed to return to that country and his beloved Capri only in 1946. The
last work to appear during his lifetime was Footnote on Capri, an essay
written to accompany a selection of photographs. Douglas died February 7,
1952, apparently by his own hand‹a fitting exit for the man who had once
wondered, ³Why prolong life save to prolong pleasure?²
Norman Douglas produced one of the key English novels of the 1910s in South
Wind (1917), while his travel books, especially Old Calabria, can stand as
models of the genre, displaying their author¹s wit, lightly worn erudition,
hatred of cant, unapologetic hedonism, and reverence for the physical world.
Works by Douglas Back to Home New Search
Website Links:
This article is provided by and copyright to ©The Literary Encyclopedia at
www.LitEncyc.com. Articles from The Literary Encyclopedia may be called into
non-profit internet sites using direct hyperlinks without charge but not
otherwise reproduced. To insert such hyperlinks, read our "How to Use"
document on our home page. No other non-profit use is allowed. For insertion
into commercial publication a formal licence must be obtained from
Editors@LitEncyc.com.