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Norman Douglas




He started in the diplomatic service in 1894 but was put on leave after a potential (possibly bisexual) scandal arose. In 1897 he bought a villa in Naples . The next year he married Elizabeth FitzGibbon, a cousin; they had two children, but divorced in 1903 on grounds of her infidelity. The Pseudonym ''Normyx'', used for ''Unprofessional Tales'' (1901) may refer to work that was jointly his and Elizabeth's.

He moved to 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'. During his years in Florence, he was associated with the publisher and bookseller Pino Orioli, who published in Italy in his 'Lungarno' series a number of Douglas's books and also works by other English authors, many of which (such as the first edition of Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover ), would have been prosecuted for obscenity if published in London. Douglas probably had a major hand in writing Orioli's autobiography, 'Memoirs of a Bookseller'.

Further scandals led to Douglas leaving Italy for the south of France in 1937. During World War II Douglas left France, and on a circuitous journey to London, where he lived from 1942 to 1946, he published the first edition of his 'Almanac' in a tiny edition in Lisbon. He returned to Capri, where his circle of acquaintances included the writer Graham Greene and the cookery expert Elizabeth David . He died in Capri, apparently deliberately overdosing himself on drugs after a long illness. (see 'Impossible Woman: Memoirs of Dottoressa Moore', ed. by Greene).


WORKS


  • ''The Forestal Conditions of Capri'' (1904)

  • ''Three Monographs'' (1906),

  • ''Some Antiquarian Notes'' (1907)

  • ''Siren Land'' (1911) travel book

  • ''Fountains In The Sand'' (1912)

  • ''Old Calabria'' (1915) travel book

  • ''London Street Games'' (1916)

  • ''South Wind'' (1917) novel

  • ''They Went'' (1920) novel

  • ''Alone'' (1921) travel book

  • ''Together'' (1923) travel book

  • ''D.H. Lawrence and Maurice Magnus: A Plea for Better M''anners (1924)

  • ''Experiments'' (1925)

  • ''In the Beginning'' (1927) novel

  • ''Nerinda'' (1929)

  • ''One Day'' (1929)

  • ''Birds and Beasts of the Greek Anthology'' (1927)

  • ''Some Limericks'' (1928),

  • ''Paneros'' (1930). essay on aphrodisiacs

  • ''Capri: Materials for a Description of the Island'' (1930),

  • ''How About Europe?'' (1930)

  • ''Three Of Them'' (1930)

  • ''Looking Back'' (1933) autobiography

  • ''An Almanac'' (1945)

  • ''Late Harvest'' (1946) autobiography

  • ''Venus in the Kitchen'' (1952) cookery, written under the pseudonym Pilaff Bey

  • ''Footnote on Capri'' (1952)



REFERENCES


  • H. M. Tomlinson (1931) ''Norman Douglas''

  • John Davenport (1955), 'Introduction' to a reprint of ''Old Calabria''

  • Mark Holloway (1976) ''Norman Douglas, A Biography''



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