From the Elephant's Back

Published by

The University of Alberta Press

Ring House 2

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1

www.uap.ualberta.ca

Copyright © 2015 The Beneficiaries of the Literary Estate of Lawrence Durrell

Introduction and annotations copyright © 2015 James Gifford

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Durrell, Lawrence [Essays. Selections]

From the elephant's back: collected essays & travel writings / Lawrence Durrell; edited and with an introduction by James Gifford; foreword by Peter Baldwin.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978–1–77212–051–6 (pbk.).—

ISBN 978–1–77212–059–2 (epub).—

ISBN 978–1–77212–060–8 (kindle).—

ISBN 978–1–77212–061–5 (PDF)

I. Gifford, James, 1974–, editor, writer of introduction II. Title.

Index available in print and PDF editions.

First edition, first printing, 2015.

First electronic edition, 2015.

Digital conversion by Transforma Pvt. Ltd.

Copyediting and proofreading by Joanne Muzak.

Indexing by Lindsay Parker.

Cover design by Alan Brownoff.

Cover image: Chris Bennett,
Hannibal
(detail). Used by permission.
www.chrisbenn.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written consent. Contact the University of Alberta Press for further details.

The University of Alberta Press gratefully acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from The Canada Council for the Arts. The University of Alberta Press also gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Media Fund (AMF) for its publishing activities.

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Contents

Foreword

PETER BALDWIN

Acknowledgements

Introduction

JAMES GIFFORD

From the Elephant's Back

PERSONAL POSITIONS

A Letter from the Land of the Gods

Airgraph on Refugee Poets in Africa

No Clue to Living

This Magnetic, Bedevilled Island That Tugs at My Heart

Lamas in a French Forest

IDEAS ABOUT LITERATURE

The Prince and Hamlet: A Diagnosis

Hamlet, Prince of China

Prospero's Isle: To Caliban

Ideas About Poems

Ideas About Poems II

The Heraldic Universe

Hellene and Philhellene

A Cavafy Find

A Real Heart Transplant into English

Introduction to
Wordsworth

L'amour, Clef du Mystère?

ETERNAL CONTEMPORARIES

Theatre: Sense and Sensibility

The Happy Rock

Studies in Genius VI: Groddeck

Constant Zarian: Triple Exile

Enigma Variations

The Shades of Dylan Thomas

Bernard Spencer

The Other Eliot

Richard Aldington

On George Seferis

Poets Under the Bed

SPIRIT OF PLACE: TRAVEL WRITING

Corfu: Isle of Legend

The Island of the Rose

Can Dreams Live on When Dreamers Die?

Family Portrait

Letter in the Sofa

The Moonlight of Your Smile

The Poetic Obsession of Dublin

Borromean Isles

Alexandria Revisited

With Durrell in Egypt

Works Cited

Foreword

A taste or more correctly a passion which once contracted can never be cured.

—JAMES POPE-HENNESSY,
Aspects of Provence

As for human characters, whether real or invented, there are no such animals. Each psyche is really an ant-hill of opposing predispositions. Personality as something with fixed attributes is an illusion—but a necessary illusion if we are to love!

—LAWRENCE DURRELL,
Balthazar

THE GENESIS OF THIS COLLECTION
took place one weekend over ten years ago when I met with my fellow Durrell enthusiast and collector, Peter Dixon, to talk Durrell and to inspect my extensive but disordered collection of work by and about Lawrence Durrell.

I had been a serious collector (someone who will order a book first then look at the price!) since the late 1970s. I had wandered in and out of second-hand bookshops, raided the catalogues of dealers of “Modern Firsts,” plagued Bernard Stone (himself a long time collector, seller, and publisher of Durrell's work from various London bookshop premises), and placed daredevil bids at auctions until I had what might be termed a respectable collection.

If space, the arrival of babies, and indolence stopped me cataloguing the collection, it is still great fun to pull down a banker's box marked simply “Durrell” and see what lies beneath the anonymous cardboard lid. Thus it was that, one winter's day, Peter and I dug into this trove. We pulled out all the copies we could find where Durrell had contributed an occasional piece of writing. I knew there would be a lot, and soon Peter and I were in hot debate as to what should be left out of the collection that I then had in mind and of which this book is the result.

Under cover of darkness, we slipped into the law office where I worked, coaxed the photocopier into life, and spent the next two hours copying all that we had found. Having established a bundle of copies which I felt would provide a fair selection of Durrell's writing in this form, I used my charm and the promise of some pocket money to persuade Janet, one of the secretaries at my office, to prepare a typescript for me.

My plan had been to publish the collection under the imprint of my own Delos Press. In the meantime, Richard Pine, director of the Durrell School of Corfu and author of the most impressive
Lawrence Durrell: The Mindscape
, had provided much encouragement by adding some editorial notes to the copy I had prepared. Richard's support and contribution may have come at a time when my interest would otherwise have flagged, given that the project then seemed beyond the scope of both my finances and competence as an editor.

I also had the benefit of advice and editorial encouragement from Dr. James Gifford of Fairleigh Dickinson University. As well as being aware of his scholarly work, I knew that he was instrumental in the republishing of Durrell's first two novels,
Pied Piper of Lovers
and
Panic Spring
. I am immensely grateful for his efforts.

That this selection of essays has progressed from being “good” to exceptional is entirely down to his work and diligence in finalising and editing the selection now available.

Much of what Durrell wrote as occasional pieces about Provence is readily available elsewhere, such as in the
Spirit of Place
collection. For the most part, the essays reproduced here are reprinted for the first time.

My epigraph from Pope-Hennessy's excellent and evocative book opens with the words, Provence is “a taste.” So fiery has my passion been for the work of Lawrence Durrell that I benefited from Larry's munificent encouragement to publish two of his books under my own Delos Press imprint: with Penelope Durrell-Hope, a revised edition of
An Irish Faustus
(1987) and a short text he wrote specially for Delos,
Henri Michaux: The Poet of Supreme Solipsism
. I am ever grateful for the opportunity to have published these books and this collection therefore seems to be the best possible tribute to a writer of such style, inspiration, and imagination.

Salut, Larry.

I am gratified that the following shared my commitment to seeing this collection of writing published: Peter Dixon; Janet King for doing the first typescript; Anthony Astbury for the first proof reading; John Glass for adding his editorial skills; Anthea Morton Saner and her successor Camilla Goslett at Curtis Brown for agreeing to the contractual side; Richard Pine of the Durrell School of Corfu for editorial guidance; Penelope and John Hope for offering their wisdom and inspiration; Brewster Chamberlin for checking the chronology I prepared to assist my work on the project; and Tony Rudolf for perfecting my weak translations from the French when only versions in that language are available.

Finally, and most importantly, to Françoise Kestsman Durrell who, as Durrell's literary executor, so promptly agreed to this publication when first mooted as a Delos Press book.

Peter Baldwin

Moseley, Birmingham, England

November 2014

Acknowledgements

I COULD NOT HAVE COMPLETED THIS COLLECTION
without a good deal of help from many people. Peter Baldwin first envisioned this collection for Delos Press, which has produced many fine editions. I have benefited from much correspondence with Peter as well as a detailed conversation in Stratford-Upon-Avon in 2009 with regard to the changes to the project. In the same year, Fairleigh Dickinson University supported two weeks of research in Oxford where I completed the majority of the revisions to the manuscript. The staff of the Bodleian Library were extremely helpful with locating several otherwise overlooked works by Durrell, including many of his minor works from the 1930s and 1940s, some of which were added to the collection initially envisioned. I am thankful for their efficient assistance as well as for providing a working environment that was highly productive. Although the drafted comments Richard Pine and I created for the Delos Press edition were abandoned, my discussions with Richard were of great use and undoubtedly influenced my approach here. I was also fortunate to enjoy two weeks in residence at the Durrell School of Corfu in 2010 at the invitation of University of Iowa's Overseas Writer's Workshop, during which I completed a good deal of the annotations to the new additions made in Oxford.

With regard to this volume's revisions to the accepted critical interpretations of Durrell's notion of the Heraldic Universe, I am in the debt of the Special Collections librarians at the University of Victoria. They first introduced me to the Henry Miller–Herbert Read correspondence, which significantly reoriented my understanding of Durrell's critical context. This was compounded by the Read–Henry Treece correspondence, and the Read–George Woodcock letters, a published copy of which was very generously given to me. The manuscripts for all three items are held in the McPherson Library at the University of Victoria. Members of the International Lawrence Durrell Society have also given me great support through their listserv and as colleagues and friends. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the fine feedback I have received from Charles Sligh, Michael Haag, William Leigh Godshalk, Anne Zahlan, James Clawson, and Pamela Francis.