FLORENCE

Oct. 1924.

21

My dear W. L.,

Many thanks for yours of the 7 and 9 Oct, which arrived here
<u>together</u> today, as did also the old Poe article, which is was
ever so kind of you to hunt out for me.

Infinitely obliged, also, for the hundred dollars !

I will go through my Conrad correspondence, to see if I
have any letters of his relative to his books. But I greatly
fear I haven't. He always ( as we were so often together)
jubilantly handed them to me. If I find any, I will send them along
tomorrow.

That privately printed book will be decently got up
 hand-made paper, numbered and signed by myself) and as only
300 copies will be printed, I thought two guineas would not
be excessive. Anyhow, it won't be ready before the end of
December, and I will leave some dozen copies to be sent
to any U. S. booksellers you like, though I hate the idea
that you should be troubled about this sort of thing. If I
get rid of the copies fairly quickly - which I am rather
doubtful about, as it is old material - I will print 1000
copies of the next book at one guinea.

The MS. will have reached you by this time - in two
parts, alas, as it otherwise would not have conformed to the
postal regulations. I don't think there will be much trouble
about re-binding it. If Rosenbach, for some reason or other,
don't like it, you will not hesitate to send it back, as you

FLORENCE

22 Oct 1924

My dear W. L.,

What a correspondence we are having ! I fear it is giving
you endless trouble. You will by now have got mine of
yesterday, thanking you for yours of the 7. and 10 Oct.

It was awfully good of you to interest Holliday in my
new venture. It is to be called " Shepherd's Pie " - an
appropriate title, seeing that it consists of old ( but not
putrid, I hope ) materials warmed up again. As I think I
wrote you, there will be 300 copies ( I am printing 310,
as ten of them may well be spoilt in printing or binding)
numbered and signed by myself ; hand-made paper, elegantly
bound, about 230 -250 pages ; they ought to be ready before
Christmas, but I hardly dare to hope that.

I certainly think Holliday is entitled to ten per cent
discount ; he shall have it. English booksellers, they tell
me, ask 20 - 25 ; in fact, my publisher wrote me that the
booksellers make more on a book than the publisher and
author combined - which strikes me as rather outrageous.
I don't know who is to pay for the postage ; but it will
not be overwhelming.

I will put in an advt. in the "Times Lit. Supplement",
as I can't be bothered to circularize people, or even to
circumote them. But it will have to contain some address
where the book can be procured, and I dont know which to
give.

2

In short, you have spent Atonement Bay in an admirable manner, so far, at least, as I am concerned. Which reminds me that a pushful young friend of mine, not long ago, gave a ridiculous portrait of me as an anti-semite in an American monthly not long ago; an imaginary conversation between himself ("Semite") and me ("Pagan"). I am annoyed, because one does not like to be misrepresented like this before a whole continent; as if I had not gone out of my way in nearly all my books (see, for instance, p. 163 of Siren-Land; or, in *Alone*, where I write "I have gained the conviction - firm-fixed, now, as the Polar Star - that the Hebrew is as good a man as the Christian"). If he had displayed me as an anti-Christian, there would have been some sense in it. But that would have suited his book. Altogether, there is too much of this bloody personal element in what people write nowadays. A man may write about himself, if he can do it in an interesting way, but if he drags his living friends in, and by name, he should at least consult them first. So D. H. Lawrence, for the second time, has produced an absurd caricature of me, under the thin disguise of N. D., in his introduction to some Foreign Legion Memoirs.

Going through the J. C. correspondence, I find only one letter of his dealing with the book - with the very copy of "Western Eyes" which I sent you. You will judge better if it is the work of someone to pass on to any one else. If not, I keep it myself. I don't want it back.

When next you write, just answer that question as to whether you want those "Wheat Games" etc. autograph or not. They are in the "mint" state - just very good. N. D.

January 10, 1925

Herman Douglas, Esq.
c/o Thos Cook & Sons
via Tornabuoni
Florence, Italy

My dearest Doug:

As I cabled you on January 6th, Dr Rosenbach has bought the six Conrad books and seven Conrad letters which you sent over to W L to dispose of for $600. I have repaid W L $100 which he tells me he advanced you on this sale as you will see by the enclosed copy of my letter to him, and am forwarding you $250, per enclosed draft, and will forward you the balance due you of $250 as soon as received. So much for business.

This took me three weeks, Doug darling, 7-gold tipped cigarettes (which I hate), 2-hours with Dr Rosenbach (whom I do not love) in his vault, the reading of the entire correspondence between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, to say nothing of some mouldy Elizabethan Anthologies, the original manuscript of the Meister Singer, with the sicken-ing sight of $72,000 worth of unsold Conrad manuscripts always before me. However, I would have undergone much worse with joy and only wish I could have obtained a larger sum for you. This sum, however, may guide your path as you hasten through the arduous in the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele.

I am attacking the sale of the manuscript of South Wind next week, as your fame increases. Take a look at these newspaper clippings. Will write you more personally next week.

All my love,

Bronze
BDN

FLORENCE

24 Jan. 1925

My dearest Mew,

Thanks awfully for your letter and all the trouble you
have taken. But this check is no good to me at all. I am
going to Central Africa, and what is the use of all these
bloody Italian lire's to me? Besides, the Banca di Credito
is the rottenest bank in Italy; they give the worst exchange,
and keep you waiting ONE WHOLE DAY in ice-cold corners
and places before they will cash one cent. If Rosenbach pays
in dollars, why the Hell should I have these filthy Italian
notes which are not even good enough to wipe one's behind
on? And why the devil should I be told where to cash my
checks? If I had received an ordinary check in dollars I
should have sent it to my bank in London, and left them to do
the rest. Therefore, my dear, please send me the whole five
hundred dollars in one check and let me cash it where I
please. This is how it should be made out: only in dollars.

Nº 60
S 082108

London, 32 Feb 1925
T. 13

Barclays Bank Limited

54, LOMBARD STREET, E. C.

Pay Mrs Murilo Drapier or order
Five thousand pounds —
15000-0-0 A. de Poistie

THIS CHEQUE REQUIRES ENDORSEMENT.

Barclays Bank, London

T

And no damned Banca di Credito Balls. Don't have it make
out in pounds, or lères, or francs, or
Kronen, or marks; but in dollars. Trust me
to change them.

2

And now, my dear, just listen to this. I sent the
*South Wind* MS to W. L. on the 24 September, at the same
time telling him that I must get to Central Africa in
spring and needed the money, and that if Rosenbach did not
want the thing he need only say so. I thought that he would
either take it or leave it. Well, since then I have had two
other offers for this MS., and, *entre nous*, am damned sorry
to have sent it to R., because, as I told you in my last,
Eric is leaving his present post in Africa in spring, and
wants me to come to him at once - and I can't buy the ticket,
because I haven't got the money for that infernal MS. Don't
you think this is very vexatious? Rosenbach has had the
thing since early October, and kept me dangling all this
time. That is unbusinesslike - because it is not a question
of thousands of pounds where, by delay, he might have got
the interest on his money. What is the interest on £200?
Not worth talking about - not for him, at least. And
tickets for Zanzibar have to be bought a good two or three
weeks beforehand. You can't think how annoyed I am about
this. Now if you know Rosenbach at all well, I wish you
would give him to understand the following : if he wants the
MS, he should pay for it at once for the reasons above stated;
if he does not, he need only advise me to that effect, and
I will send him a check of £20, to recoup him for the trouble
he has taken in the matter, and for the warehousing of the
MS during these months. I SHOULD BE DELIGHTED TO SEND
HIM THAT *CHECK*, because then I might still be able
to carry out my intention of going to Africa. I can sell
the MS, and get the money for it, within one week of its
arrival here from America.

Read this page over again.

3

Thanks so much for the *South Wind* cuttings. Boni and Liveright are going to push it properly in their Modern Library Series, to which I have written a special Introduction.

By the way, there was a woman who felt rather ill and went to consult a doctor. She entered what she thought his house, met him on the stairs, and explained her symptoms. He said: "Just step into that room, Madam, and take off your clothing. I'll be with you presently". When she was quite undressed, he came in and said: "Now, Madam, bend forward all you can". He had a careful look at her behind and then said: "Well, Madam, there are just two things I ought to tell you. Firstly, you have the dirtiest backside I have ever seen; and secondly, the doctor lives next door."

Ready January 30.

D. H. LAWRENCE
and
MAURICE MAGNUS:

A Plea for Better Manners
by

NORMAN
DOUGLAS

With Portrait of Maurice Magnus

FIVE SHILLINGS NET.

Obtainable on remittance post free from the Author
c/o T. COOK and SON, FLORENCE. Book
sellers 10% discount.

has
ich
on-
in
ably
of
etra
chi-
nans
sting
the
after
ssian
altan
The
cten-
lan,
jaz
com-
sible
ago;
line's
will
hich
, or
come

c/o British Institute,
Piazza Antinori,
FLORENCE.

15 September, 1927.

Dear Sir,

It may interest you to know that a new book of mine, on
THE BIRDS AND BEASTS OF THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY, is now ready for
distribution.

The Edition consists of five hundred copies on hand-made
paper, numbered and signed by myself. There are 219 pages,
a frontispiece, and two illustrations in the text. The price
is one guinea or six dollars post-free; booksellers ten per
cent discount.

Should you care for a copy, kindly let me have a cheque
on any bank, and it will be forwarded to you at once, regi-
stered. Money orders made payable through the post have
involved me in so much trouble that I am sorry I cannot attend
to them.

Yours faithfully

THE LUNGARNO SERIES

No. 5

READY 1ST DECEMBER

PANEROS

SOME WORDS ON APHRODISIACS AND THE LIKE

BY

NORMAN DOUGLAS

EDITION LIMITED TO 250 COPIES

SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY THE AUTHOR FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

PRINTED ON HAND MADE PAPER

PRICE THREE GUINEAS

G. ORIOLI - 6, LUNGARNO CORSINI, FLORENCE

ORDER FORM

G. ORIOLI,
6 LUNGARNO CORSINI,
FLORENCE, (Italy)

Please send me .................................... cop. .................................... of

PANEROS

Price three guineas post free, for which I enclose cheque or
notes for....................................................................

Name ....................................................................

Address ............................................................

....................................................................

Orders cannot be executed unless accompanied by
cheque.

Money orders made payable through the post cannot
be accepted.

FLORENCE, 15 November, 1930

Dear Sir,

I beg to draw your attention to the
fact that this Edition consists of
only 250 copies.

Two books recently published by
myself - NERINDA by Norman Douglas
(475 copies), and THE VIRGIN AND THE
GIPSY by D. H. Lawrence (800 copies) -
went out of print very rapidly, and I
was obliged to return the cheques of
a good many subscribers who applied
too late.

Yours faithfully
G. ORIOLI

P. S. The price of this Edition will
be doubled after March 1, 1931.