For the New Zealand politician see Norman Douglas (New Zealand)

Norman Douglas (New Zealand)

Norman Vazey Douglas, QSO was a New Zealand trade unionist and left-wing politician. He joined the New Zealand Labour Party in 1932, but when John A. Lee was expelled from the party in 1940, Douglas followed to join the new Democratic Labour Party...

George Norman Douglas (8 December 1868 – 7 February 1952) was a British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind

South Wind (novel)

South Wind is a 1917 novel by British author Norman Douglas. It is Douglas' most famous book. It is set on an imaginary island called Nepenthe, located off the coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea, a thinly fictionalized description of Capri's residents and visitors...

.

Life

Norman Douglas was born in Thüringen, Austria

Thüringen, Austria

Thüringen is a municipality in the district of Bludenz in Vorarlberg, Austria.-References:...

 (his surname was registered at birth as Douglass). His mother was Vanda von Poellnitz. His father was John Sholto Douglas (1845–1874), manager of a cotton mill, who died in a climbing accident when Norman was about six. He spent the first years of his life on the family estate, Villa Falkenhorst, in Thüringen.

Norman was brought up mainly at Tilquhillie, Deeside

River Dee, Aberdeenshire

The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through Strathdee to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen...

, his paternal home. He was educated at Uppingham School

Uppingham School

Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...

 England, and then at a grammar school in Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...

. Norman's paternal grandfather was the 14th Laird of Tilquhillie. Norman's maternal great-grandfather was General James Ochoncar Forbes

James Ochoncar Forbes

James Ochoncar Forbes, seventeenth Lord Forbes , was a Scottish colonel.Forbes was the eldest son of James Forbes, 16th Baron Forbes, by Catherine, only daughter of Sir Robert Innes, baronet, of Ortoun. The lands of Forbes in Aberdeenshire, still in their possession, have been held by this ancient...

, 17th Lord Forbes

Lord Forbes

Lord Forbes is the senior Lord of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. The title was created sometime after 1436 for Alexander de Forbes, feudal baron of Forbes. The precise date of the creation is not known, but in a Precept dated July 12, 1442, he is already styled Lord Forbes. Brown's 1834...

.

He started in the diplomatic service in 1894 and from then until 1896 was based in St. Petersburg, but was placed on leave in unclear circumstances (probably relating to sexual scandal). In 1897 he bought a villa (Villa Maya) in Posillipo

Posillipo

Posillipo is a residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples; it is called Pusilleco in the Neapolitan language.-Geography:...

, a maritime suburb of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

. The next year he married a cousin

Cousin marriage

Cousin marriage is marriage between two cousins. In various jurisdictions and cultures, such marriages range from being considered ideal and actively encouraged, to being uncommon but still legal, to being seen as incest and legally prohibited....

 Elizabeth Louisa Theobaldina FitzGibbon (their mothers were sisters, daughters of Baron Ernst von Poellnitz). They had two children, Louis Archibald (Archie) and Robert Sholto (Robin), but divorced in 1903 on grounds of Elizabeth's infidelity. Norman's first book publication, (Unprofessional Tales (1901)) was written under the pseudonym Normyx, in collaboration with Elizabeth.

He moved to Capri

Capri

Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...

, spending time there (at the Villa Daphne) and in London, and became a more committed writer. Nepenthe, the fictional island setting of South Wind

South Wind (novel)

South Wind is a 1917 novel by British author Norman Douglas. It is Douglas' most famous book. It is set on an imaginary island called Nepenthe, located off the coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea, a thinly fictionalized description of Capri's residents and visitors...

, is Capri in light disguise. In 1912–1914 he worked for The English Review. He met D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...

 through this connection. This led to a feud, after Lawrence in his 1922 novel, Aaron's Rod based a character on Douglas. In late 1916 he jumped bail in London on a charge of indecent assault

Indecent assault

Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in many jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime.Indecent assault was an offence in England and Wales under sections 14 and 15 the Sexual Offences Act 1956...

 on a sixteen year old boy, and effectively then lived in exile. He himself wrote of this in self-exculpation: 'Norman Douglas of Capri, and of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 and Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, 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'. (The boy in fact complained to the police).

During Douglas's 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

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy with assistance from Pino Orioli; it could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960...

), 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

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 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 in 1946 and was made a citizen of the island. His circle of acquaintances included the writer Graham Greene

Graham Greene

Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...

 and the food writer Elizabeth David

Elizabeth David

Elizabeth David CBE was a British cookery writer who, in the mid-20th century, strongly influenced the revitalisation of the art of home cookery with articles and books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes.Born to an upper-class family, David rebelled against social norms of the...

. He died in Capri, apparently deliberately overdosing himself on drugs after a long illness. (see Impossible Woman: Memoirs of Dottoressa Moore, ed. by Greene). The Latin inscription on his tombstone is from an ode by Horace

Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...

 and reads: Omnes eodem cogimur, "We are all driven to the same end" (i.e., death).

His last words: "Get these fucking nuns away from me."

Works

South Wind

South Wind (novel)

South Wind is a 1917 novel by British author Norman Douglas. It is Douglas' most famous book. It is set on an imaginary island called Nepenthe, located off the coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea, a thinly fictionalized description of Capri's residents and visitors...

remains Douglas's most famous work and has been frequently reprinted. However it has been argued that his best work was in his travel books which combine erudition, insight, whimsicality, and some fine prose. These works include Siren Land (1911), Fountains in the Sand, described as 'rambles amongst the oases of Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

' (1912), Old Calabria (1915), Together (Austria) (1923) and Alone (Italy) (1921).

Douglas's early pamphlets on Capri were revised in Capri (privately published, 1930). His last published work was A Footnote on Capri (1952).

In the 1928, Douglas published Some Limericks, an anthology of more-or-less obscene limerick

Limerick (poetry)

A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line or meter with a strict rhyme scheme , which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The form can be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century...

s with a mock-scholarly critical apparatus. This classic (of its kind) has been frequently republished, often without acknowledgment in pirate editions. A definitive edition has now been published.

List of 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
  South Wind (novel)
  South Wind is a 1917 novel by British author Norman Douglas. It is Douglas' most famous book. It is set on an imaginary island called Nepenthe, located off the coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea, a thinly fictionalized description of Capri's residents and visitors...
  
  (1917) novel
• They Went (1920) novel
• Alone (1921) travel book
• Together (1923) travel book
• D.H. Lawrence and Maurice Magnus: A Plea for Better Manners (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)

Norman Douglas in fiction

• Roger Williams's Lunch With Elizabeth David (Little, Brown, 1999) is a novel about Douglas's relationship with Eric Walton, the boy he took to Calabria.
• Anthony Burgess
  Anthony Burgess
  John Burgess Wilson  – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
  
  's Earthly Powers makes frequent reference to Norman Douglas.

External links

• Photos of Norman Douglas (in German)
• Family photos (in German)
• Works by or about Norman Douglas at Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
   (scanned books original editions color illustrated) (plain text and HTML)