The International Lawrence Durrell Society Herald

Number 30 Fall-Winter 2013 Anne R. Zahlan and David Radavich, Acting Editors Susan S. MacNiven, Founding Editor

On Miracle Ground XVIII an embarrassment of riches you have an emerging idea or pointing to the next international draft of a publication, this may be James Gifford, conference. I hope to see as many the perfect venue for “flipping” President, ILDS of you in attendance as possible, the usual ratio of presentation-to- with keen ideas and sharp discussion for traditional panels – questions for discussion. The registration for the seminars will Durrellians, the centenary friendliness and genuine pleasure remain open until a month prior celebration in London during the of the Durrell 2012 conference to the conference, provided they summer of 2012 continues to masked the high scholarly have space. provoke much attention and standards evidenced everywhere, Our host for 2014, thought for Durrell’s works, and and the work of the past year Fairleigh Dickinson University, is that energy is carrying forward to bodes well for more to come. a strong match for the our 2014 conference in May, We are also organizing internationalism of the ILDS. The which will be held in Vancouver, seminars for the first time in the Vancouver campus is one of four British Columbia. Vancouver is a conference. This format allows for in the USA, Canada, and the UK. highly cosmopolitan city with a more discussion-oriented and Floating near to 1,000 students, it diverse cultural opportunities, nuanced interaction with a group plays host to more than 35 and our conference will be in the of colleagues. For those who want nationalities and emphasizes a heart of the Yaletown district of to experiment with the format global perspective in our age of downtown, hosted by Fairleigh instead of or in addition to a globalization. With 38 languages Dickinson University – “five traditional paper, it will be spoken on campus, please feel races, five languages, a dozen modeled after the seminars of the encouraged to think expansively creeds” may prove true indeed, if Modernist Studies Association. for our understanding of Durrell not much more, but there are no Each participant will share a draft in his second century. promises of “more than five sexes paper prior to arriving in Vancouver will offer a and only Demotic Greek . . . to Vancouver so that the seminar broad scope for visitors, with its distinguish among them.” We will time can be dedicated to new identity as the “city of glass” be in the centre of a thriving, discussion and opportunities for juxtaposed against impressive diverse community in which to mutual engagement amongst the examples of modernist Art Deco consider Durrell’s works. participants. If you have a hot topic architecture. With the downtown As Pamela Francis points around which you would like to core originally being an island, out in this issue of the Herald, the organize a seminar, there’s still we will be surrounded by the sea past year has been busy for time remaining to propose it. If and mountains – a short stroll Durrell scholarship, and we have ILDS Herald 2

from the historical Gastown Welcome to Vancouver Salish people. district and a thriving Chinatown (second largest in North Helen Wussow America), and amidst Hollywood North on all sides – all hosted on traditional Musqueam territory. On Miracle Ground XVIII, “Durrell Lastly, I invite you all to & Place: Translation, Migration, peruse the ILDS website Location,” will be held in www.lawrencedurrell.org. It has Vancouver, British Columbia, a new design and content Canada from May 14 through 17, being added continuously. We 2014, sponsored by ILDS and have many surprises coming as Fairleigh Dickinson University. Flight Spindle Whorl well, with an updated online Vancouver as a location for a Vancouver Airport Authority bibliography (tip of the hat to conference on Lawrence Durrell James Clawson) and a thriving may seem odd. But, like Two tall wooden figures will twitter feed @DurrellSociety Alexandria, Vancouver is a port greet you, hands extended in (courtesy of Charles Sligh). Also, town positioned on the edge of an welcome. These pieces are the since the earlier scheduling of the immense continent. Vancouver work of Susan Point, a Coast conference may limit travel for looks not to the cultures behind it, Salish (Musqueam) artist whose some, we are exploring ways to but to those that lie before it work is featured in the many leverage the campus’s rich IT across the sea—much like galleries lining Water Street and environment to create an online Alexandria. in the University of British experience or remote form of Conference attendees will Columbia’s Museum of participation. Updates to come . . . notice this orientation as soon as Anthropology. For, like Watch the ILDS site and twitter they disembark at Vancouver Alexandria, Vancouver is a place feed for details. International Airport. Informa- of many languages and many This is my last President’s tion is provided in Mandarin, beliefs. Letter, and in mid-May the ILDS Cantonese, and Korean (in Once upon a time, people will have a new president – I feel addition to Canada’s two official were swept to this place on some much satisfaction for what we languages). A large advertisement of the strongest tides in the have all accomplished over the for hairy crab hangs on a wall world, waters which rush to fill past four years, and it has been a directly outside customs (if you the deep sea harbor. Now listen . privilege to work with Charles want to know what a hairy crab is, . . from your hotel window you Sligh and Paul Lorenz, as well as you must come to the will hear the sounds of gulls, everyone else on the Society’s conference—perhaps you will waves, and wind, all of which lie executive board. We have much meet one). For those familiar with under Fog Woman, provider of yet to do, but our next board will Hong Kong, Vancouver will seem the salmon you will eat, fish that have more than three decades of like a miniature version of that journey thousands of miles only productive work to draw from. I older harbor. Vancouver’s to return to their original waters. look forward to supporting those Chinatown, the local community of You will find her story portrayed whom you choose. Richmond, and the numerous fine in the work of Bill Reid, a Haida I hope to see you all at the restaurants offering cuisines from artist honored in the downtown eighteenth On Miracle Ground the Pacific Rim are all a testament gallery bearing his name. conference in the 34th year of the to the city’s rich Asian heritage. Personally, I never ILDS! Your journey down the thought of Vancouver as a escalator at the airport to passport destination, but the tides of life control will be observed by faces seem to have landed me here. I carved on the world’s largest grew up on a small farm in spindle whorl, symbol of the Coast northern Minnesota, not far from ILDS Herald 3 the Canadian border, and crossed Teaching Durrell in the poetically evocative, richly an ocean to study in England. Arab Spring elaborate, elegantly dense, the From there I traveled to Memphis current generation from which I ventured to Donald Kaczvinsky communicates through tweets Alexandria, and there discovered and bytes and has little patience the greatest gift of all. Then on to for a baroque style. Then, Durrell New York City, a harbor which My brother-in-law, who teaches is a dead-white-male writing welcomes, like Vancouver, English at the University of from a distinctly conservative voyagers and seekers. Houston-Clear Lake, once told me political perspective and having And now I have migrated never to teach something you rather slighting things to say to this place of sea and sky only really love because the students about women and minority to cross a border that is as will break your heart. I’ve cultures. Well, that’s formidable. imaginary to me as it is to the remembered his words, though I So, even to put Durrell on the bald eagles that nest far up the try to ignore them. After all, syllabus takes dedication and Burrard Inlet, the arm of water shouldn’t we teach what we love devotion. From the back end of that stretches well beyond the and are excited about, to engage the 20th-century or the beginning city’s harbor. the students in what has fascinated of the 21st , Durrell simply doesn’t Alexandria has a storied and engaged us? Such is my case look quite as exciting or landscape. In Vancouver, with Lawrence Durrell. experimental or “sexy” as he did landscape is the story. The Over my 23 years working in the 1960s and ‘70s. Indeed mountain you look at today is an here at Louisiana Tech University, even his sexual frankness now esteemed ancestor from I’ve taught works by Durrell seems not very frank, indeed, yesterday; the osprey in the sky probably 6 or 7 times, in classes rather oblique and tame when was once a killer whale, now ranging from a graduate-level compared to, say, Miley Cyrus. translated through love. The self course in Modernism-Postmodern- And yet I teach and you bring to On Miracle Ground ism to more traditional courses in continue to teach Durrell’s work, XVIII may well experience a Modern and Contemporary British not because I’m Sisyphus, but seismic shift, a strange Literature. I must say, I’ve never because he has important things dislocation of place, the result of been thoroughly satisfied with to say and says them in an watching the sun setting as it how I’ve presented Durrell. I’ve important way. My most recent rises in the west. Vancouver is a thought that maybe I know too attempt to teach Durrell’s Quartet place where east becomes west, much about him and tried to give was perhaps my greatest success. north becomes south, and the the students everything, but ended I included Mountolive in my ocean goes on forever. up just confusing them, or worse, syllabus in a course on boring them. And teaching Contemporary British Literature. Durrell’s works, even for the most I built my reading list up as a seasoned instructor, is really, series of juxtapositions that I really hard in this day and age. hoped would highlight the First, there is the fact that he contrasting voices of late- writes long, complicated, multi- twentieth century British volume works that do not fit well literature. Tolkien’s The Hobbit into an American syllabus. And was paired with Beckett’s then again I teach on the Quarter Waiting for Godot, Philip Larkin’s system, 10 weeks of classes, so we poetry was countered by The make a quick romp through Beatles’ lyrics, Durrell’s colonial whatever subject matter we may vision of the Orient was brought include, never mind a four-volume up against Rushdie’s post- series that stretches over 800 colonial East, West: Stories, to Rue sala-el-din, Niki Marangou pages. While Durrell’s prose is name just a few. Although I ILDS Herald 4 couldn’t have known, it just so going to write an annotated Durrell on the Web happened that the course was bibliography on James Bond in film scheduled right when the Arab and fiction--another spin-off from Charles Sligh, Spring broke into full bloom, so the course. She said she loved Vice President, ILDS nothing could have been better! Fleming, and Alasdair Gray was Perfect! wonderful, Graham Swift was ver the past year, a number of I began my talk on Durrell interesting from an environmental O by providing an historical perspective, and Rushdie was innovations have emerged that background of the British funny and witty. Of course, Angela will clearly make a positive presence in Egypt. I relied upon Carter and her rewriting of fairy difference for the ILDS and my article on “Ornamentalism,” tales was superb in breaking male Lawrence Durrell studies in and also on Michael Haag’s stereotypes. There was only one general. The recent release of a groundbreaking work about the person she didn’t really respond redesigned ILDS website society of Alexandria during the to. I knew it was coming. I looked (http://lawrencedurrell.org/) is, 1930s, hoping it would lead to around my office where posters without doubt, of most greater discussion on what was from the Durrell conferences I’ve immediate import. Thanks to the currently being reported on the attended hang upon the wall. She time and talents of James Gifford, news and the internet. We looked said “that Durrell guy I didn’t the website is undergoing at street protests recorded on really like much.” My heart sank. complete renovation. The YouTube, saw the crowds “Why?” I asked. “Well, the novel redesigned website will feature a gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. was only one of four, and I never clearer, easier to use interface; an Egyptian nationalism, religious felt I understood the whole story.” array of useful tools (online fundamentalism, political I wanted to tell her that even if you bibliographies, both for Durrell’s intrigue: Durrell’s Quartet and read the “whole” Quartet, you works and for Durrell his intimate knowledge of the would not get the “whole” story-- scholarship; descriptions, contact Alexandrian/Egyptian society that was the point. I didn’t. I information, and links for special was remarkably relevant once smiled, nodded my head, sighed. collections with Durrell holdings; again. In a way never before Students, they’ll break your heart! and search access for the possible in my teaching career, archived ILDS listserv); the blimpish Mountolive trying to integration with the ILDS’s social deal with a fractious society and Niki Marangou (1948- media platforms (including a an explosive political world made 2013) was a distinguished Twitter timeline for perfect sense. His frustration was Cypriot writer and artist. She @DurrellSociety); and online ours. I even used Durrell as one of had strong ties to the forms for ILDS membership and the essay options on the midterm, Alexandria that Durrell knew OMG conference paper asking students to respond to the as well as to contemporary proposals. Norton Anthology’s comment that Egypt, where she met her Both Faber & Faber and Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet was death in an automobile Open Road Media have greatly evidence of a “nostalgia” in accident on 7 February 2013. expanded the availability of literature during the 1950s. The previous year she Lawrence Durrell’s back catalog Nostalgia. I don’t think so. I felt attended the 2012 through their eBook offerings. good. I thought I finally had given conference marking the For some time now, Faber Durrell his due. Durrell Centenary. In this (http://www.faber.co.uk/) has About two months ago, issue of the Herald, we offered digital versions of the one of the students from the class remember Niki with images following titles for purchase and came to visit me in my office. She of two of her paintings. download in the UK market via is now a graduate student. We Amazon.co.uk and other vendors: The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, got to talking and I asked her how Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea; The Black she had liked the class: she was Book; The Dark Labyrinth; Judith: ILDS Herald 5

A Novel; The Revolt of Aphrodite; Tunc Open Road Media is to be and Nunquam; Collected Poems 1931-74; commended for having exceeded Selected Poems of Lawrence Durrell; Prospero’s Cell; Reflections on a Marine our expectations in its offerings, Venus; Bitter Lemons of Cyprus; Sicilian and this catalog of eBook titles Carousel; The Greek Islands; Caesar’s Vast more than makes up for the Ghost; Aspects of Provence; Antrobus previous shortfall of Lawrence Complete; Esprit de Corps. Durrell titles available for the US For the market on the market. Indeed, the appearance of other side of the Atlantic, Open Open Road’s releases means that Road Integrated Media’s offerings there are now more Lawrence are of potentially even greater Durrell titles available than at any significance. For several decades, previous moment. Also worth Some time ago I ran across an American readers and scholars noting is that Open Road Media have justifiably lamented the lack online announcement of the 2007 presents readers with a generous program in Alexandria of available Durrell titles. variety of choices when it comes to Penguin Books, which has held celebrating the 50th anniversary Lawrence Durrell’s multi-volume of the publication of Justine. I publication rights for the US and serialized titles. American market, has seemed content to remember it well because it customers interested in reading reproduced a watercolor— reprint the novels of The The Alexandria Quartet or The Alexandria Quartet as individual striking in its quick line and Avignon Quintet may now choose quirky detail—of Alexandria’s titles while at the same allowing to purchase either eBooks for the the rest of Durrell’s catalog to fall Grande Corniche taken from one omnibus editions or individual of the most attractive items on out-of-print. The fact that eBooks for each of the constituent Penguin has continued to reprint the Durrell shelf—Paul Hogarth’s novels. The Black Book and The The Mediterranean Shore: Travels Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Alexandria Quartet feature new and Clea from faulty plates that in Lawrence Durrell Country introductions by D. B. C. Pierre and (Pavilion/Michael Joseph, 1988). pre-date Durrell’s early Jan Morris, written especially for corrections and later 1962 The covers of the volumes of the the 2012 Lawrence Durrell Avignon Quintet published by revisions should also be noted. Centenary. Significantly, the text Open Road Media Noir sur Blanc in Polish draw on of the Open Road Media eBook for the same source. (http://www.openroadmedia.com/) The Alexandria Quartet reflects has now made an impressive Hogarth is only one of Durrell’s 1962 revisions and start toward remedying these all- several fine illustrators to have additions, thus bringing American too-familiar problems, offering been associated with Durrell’s and British readings into the following titles in eBook works. The original Faber alignment for the first time. format: editions of the Avignon Quintet Justine; Balthazar; Mountolive; Clea; The bore lush, just-about-irresistible Alexandria Quartet; Tunc; Nunquam; covers by David Gentleman, as Monsieur or The Prince of Darkness; Livia did the 1992 one-volume edition. or Buried Alive; Constance or Solitary (I’ve often thought that if Viking Passions; Sebastian or Ruling Passions; Quinx or The Ripper’s Tale; The Avignon had used these covers, the Quintet; The Dark Labyrinth; Judith; publisher would have sold more White Eagles Over Serbia; The Best of copies.) Gentleman went on to Antrobus; Prospero’s Cell; Reflections on a provide covers for later Faber Marine Venus; Bitter Lemons of Cyprus; Blue Thirst: Tales of Life Abroad; Esprit editions of the Alexandria Quartet de Corps; Stiff Upper Lip; Sauve Qui Peut; and its individual volumes, as Sicilian Carousel; The Lawrence Durrell well as for Tunc (and, I imagine, Travel Reader; Spirit of Place: Letters and Nunquam, although I have yet to Essays on Travel; A Smile in the Mind’s Window with Chair, lay eyes on a copy). The cover of Eye. Niki Manangou Tunc—a watercolor of the ILDS Herald 6

Parthenon in autumnal tan and Broken Road: From the Iron Gates birth, the Corfu Museum of Asian brown—reappeared on the to Mount Athos, and has been Art held an exhibition entitled combined edition, The Revolt of assembled by Cooper and travel Edward Lear and the Ionian Aphrodite. writer Colin Thubron from several Islands at the Palace of St. Michael Recently Penguin texts, most of them unpublished and St. George over the course of commissioned American tattoo until now. The British edition has the summer of 2012. artist Robert Ryan to design front just appeared as I write these and back covers for an edition of words, and reviews suggest that Justine. When I heard about this Leigh Fermor’s many readers will project my hopes weren’t high, not be disappointed. but the result— bright and gaudy The original Murray as it is— captures certain aspects editions of Leigh Fermor’s books of the novel splendidly, and I’m bore striking covers designed by glad to add it to my collection. his friend, painter John Craxton. Other members of the Born in 1922, Craxton spent much Postcard from Corfu society have spoken of the delight of his adult life in Crete, where he they take in the first Faber bought an old Venetian house Although he spent as editions of the Quartet, but overlooking the harbor of Chania. much time as possible in Corfu, perhaps because they represent “I have little sense of being Lear traveled widely as a my first experience of Durrell, the ‘British,’” he once declared. “In professional artist, producing 1961 Dutton paperback editions, Greece I found human identities, watercolor sketches of various with covers and box design by people within their own scenes that he would later refer Jim McMullan, are the ones I environment. This new world to in producing the full-scale oil value above all others. McMullan fitted me artistically, and suited paintings that he sold for a living. works with less detail than either me socially and financially.” The watercolors themselves are Hogarth or Gentleman, and his Influenced by fellow artists of course more spontaneous than sketches of Durrell’s four main Graham Sutherland and the oils, and to the modern eye characters suggest rather than (especially) Nikos Hadjikyriakos- they often seem better works of show, pulling readers into the Ghika, as well as by Byzantine art, art. Edward Lear: Egyptian texts. McMullan went on to Craxton forged an individual style Sketches (National Maritime provide covers for several of eminently suited to his adopted Museum, 2009) collects a number Durrell’s other books, but none country. To my mind his most of such watercolors of a country matches these first evocative satisfying works are a series of that clearly fascinated Lear. efforts. landscapes of Hydra painted Referring to the Nile island of The great Patrick Leigh during the 1960s, and another, Philae in a letter to his sister Ann, Fermor is no longer with us, but highly abstract series inspired by a he wrote that “it is impossible to Artemis Cooper’s biography, gorge in Crete. You’ll see examples describe the place to you, any Patrick Leigh Fermor: An of both in John Craxton by Ian further than by saying it is more Adventure, captures his spirit Collins (Lund Humphries, 2011). like a real fairy island than perfectly. The biography was After much initial reluctance, the anything else I can compare it to.” published to wide acclaim in notoriously exacting Craxton gave The novels of Olivia Britain by John Murray in 2012, his blessing to the volume but died Manning, whom Durrell knew and New York Review Books will (in late 2009) without seeing it slightly in wartime Egypt, have publish it in the United States in published. Quite simply, Edward been overshadowed by the works late 2013, along with the Lear loved Corfu, calling it of her contemporaries—a concluding volume of Leigh “paradise” and declaring that “no situation aggravated by Fermor’s trilogy describing his other spot on earth can be fuller of Manning’s scarcely concealed trek across Europe in the 1930s. beauty and of variety of beauty.” In insecurity and sense of neglect. This final volume is titled The honor of the bicentenary of his The popular 1987 television ILDS Herald 7

production of The Fortunes of heartbroken by its fragile scholarship, this year the critical War, based on her “Balkan” and condition.” mass, so to speak, appears in the “Levant” trilogies and starring Khedr is trying to fight the inaugural issue of Global Review Kenneth Branagh and Emma destruction of this house “because (theglobalreview.net/?page_id=11). Thompson, sparked renewed of the contribution it has made as Edited by the Society’s own James interest, but by then Manning had the very space that inspired Gifford, James Clawson, and Fiona died. Now her works are Durrell to write one of the most Tomkinson, this issue, subtitled receiving greater critical influential literary works of the “Archives and Networks of attention thanks to two new twentieth century”: “I would need Modernism,” builds on the work studies: Imperial Refugee: Olivia many credible personalities in the first begun in earnest at On Manning’s Fictions of War by Eve literary world in order to have any Miracle Ground XIV in Victoria in Patten (Cork University Press, chance at stopping the villa from 2006. Some of us have seen 2011) and Olivia Manning: A being demolished. What we are Gifford’s charts and networks, Woman at War by Deirdre David trying to do is bring the issue to an and their demonstration of (Oxford University Press, 2012). international scale.” Durrell’s ubiquitous—even if Anyone who can help, peripheral—participation in so Report on the “Villa please contact Ahmed Khedr at many coteries and movements Ambron” [email protected]. elucidates the varied angles of study available to Modernists. Ahmed Khedr sends This year in Durrell Gifford’s essay directs attention distressing news from Alexandria studies… to Durrell’s connections to about the impending destruction English Surrealism and Anarchism through the New of Lawrence Durrell’s former Pamela Francis house, the “Villa Ambron”: Apocalypse and Personal Landscape (Cairo) poets, but his “I don't know if you're aware, but It’s so nice to write for the larger point is a call for more the villa is now in danger of being Herald again. Since Grove and attention to the “distinct critical demolished due to the land others have covered the newest narrative” that lay “buried in our owner's decision to have a books on Durrell, I want to fill you archives and recorded in their building there instead. He knows in on recent periodical literature. networks of international of Lawrence Durrell, as well as At the risk of generalizing, I influences” (101). In response to his fan base, but has made it clear identify three trends in recent Gifford’s article, Jesse Cohn that unless someone is willing to essay-length studies of Lawrence replies that Gifford’s “anarchist buy the property, he will indeed Durrell. One is the continued revisions to Surrealism” are both destroy it. He would in fact be recognition of Durrell as a significant and incomplete; destroying a part of Egypt's productive example of modernist specifically, Cohn notes, this history. There are many networks “at work”; the second is trajectory of study may benefit controversies regarding this Durrell’s contribution to the from an investigation into the use major issue. The house is in foul burgeoning field of landscape of “mythistorema,” the present shape, and it is rumored that the studies. The third trend, the repetition of a past event, as a owner has been implementing frequency of references to Durrell particularly Nietzschean view of much internal damage to the in articles not specifically relating time that would likely have structure of the villa in order to to his work, suggests a widespread appealed to the “anarchist get a clearance that it is no longer familiarity with his writing and imaginary” (112). safe and beyond repair. This kind thinking that encourages those of Another network of action would bring him legal us who believe his work to be associated with Durrell is the permission to bring it down. under-read and understudied. world of the British foreign Anyone who is a Durrell fan who While Deus Loci is always services. Caroline Z. Krzakowski’s comes to visit the house is utterly the go-to source for Durrell “Modern Diplomacy and ILDS Herald 8

Mountolive” reads Bitter Lemons for new critical studies of Durrell’s lived in Egypt during the same and Mountolive as efforts to relationship to landscape. “City time, though they never met. “decode” the postwar world, and and Landscape of Remembering: Cialente had published her own sees the failure to do so as The Visual Textual Palimpsest of Alexandrian novel, The indicative of the “demise of Alexandria in Lawrence Durrell’s Levantines, in 1962, two years empire” (115). James Clawson, Justine and Balthazar” in Scrutiny2, after Durrell wrote Clea, and responding to her article, a South African journal, twenty years before she interprets Durrell’s efforts at investigates the palimpsestic translated Clea into Italian. decoding fragments as a much nature of Alexandria “through the In a last search I found this broader enterprise, one not stylistic use of metaphoric and piece, just out: “British Literary limited to the postwar world of painterly imagery” (13). There is Responses to the Suez Crisis” in ineffectual diplomacy. Clawson not much new here, but the article the October issue of Literature quotes from Durrell’s Key to does remind us that Durrell’s and History. Written by Andrew Modern Poetry, noting that “our writing is an excellent example of Hammond, Senior Lecturer at understanding of reality requires literary phenomenology. University of Brighton, and a us to imagine networked Sadly, we lost ILDS member familiar name in the fields of connections among ‘our Ray Morrison this year, but he left British travel writing and British- provisional truths, our short- us with some further observations Balkan relations, this work offers range raids’ of it” (138). concerning Durrell’s study of a substantive overview of the Providing a visible string Taoism. In “The City and Its “the discursive responses to the connecting the various networks Ontology in Lawrence Durrell’s Suez Crisis,” with several pages of Late Modernism, Durrell is also Alexandria Quartet,” Morrison given over to The Alexandria mentioned as part of the little identifies Alexandria, the city itself, Quartet. Hammond, like magazine network of Paris in as the “macrocosm of Durrell’s Krzakowski above, sees in Durrell “‘Published by Us, Written by Us, creative vision” (56) and asserts “fears about British national Read by Us’: Little Magazine that, “Through his handling of the decline” (53). Whether one Networks.” In short, the entire philosophy of the Laozi and the agrees with this political reading issue of Global Review is of Zhuangzi, Durrell has vindicated of LD or not, the critical attention interest to those invested in the his claim that ‘Only the city is real’” given to Durrell in this and other study of that “loose, baggy, (68). major journals is heartening. monster” called Modernism. The influence of Taoist and Indeed, Durrell seems to It is difficult to write or other Eastern philosophies was pop up often in somewhat talk about Durrell without not lost on Fausta Cialente’s unexpected places, indicating an referring to his landscapes: each translation of The Alexandria encouraging familiarity with of his works is inextricably Quartet into Italian, according to Durrell as writer, thinker, and, woven into the fabric of a Antonella De Nicola. Her essay, even, as we have seen, diplomat. particular place. Yet critical “Sharing Eastern Visions: For instance, an article in the human geographers have Reflections upon Fausta Cialente’s Journal of Modern Greek Studies overlooked Durrell, preferring Translation of The Alexandria covering approaches to the visual art as their objects of Quartet by Lawrence Durrell,” sees teaching of Greek, addresses study. Durrell scholars have in both Durrell and Cialente Mountolive as a useful text for the always seen the importance of similar lives of border crossings study of Levantine cities. In an landscape in his work, and and rootlessness, as well as a article on the treatment of incest though recent book-length common concern over what in Iris Murdoch, Emma Miller collections have broached the George Steiner calls the “third refers to Durrell’s use of a subject (Donald P. Kaczvinsky’s voice” in the act of translation. De “Romanticist type” of incest— edited collection Durrell and the Nicola also opens a new avenue in incest between adult siblings—in City: Collected Essays on Place, for the networks of modernism: she the Quartet (though Miller’s example), there is plenty of room notes that Cialente and Durrell familiarity with LD must end ILDS Herald 9 there, as there is no mention of Gifford, James, James M. Clawson, and Conversations with Fiona Tomkinson, eds. “Introduction.” that same sibling incest in the Another Ass, or Views Quintet). Most fascinating of the Global Review 1.1(2013): i-x. from Pudding Island short mentions are notes for Gifford, James. “The Personal Landscape Peter Whitehead’s two short and New Apocalypse Networks: films in 1963, which include a Philhellenic, Anarchist, & Surrealist Late Peter Baldwin fairly thorough consideration of Modernisms.” Global Review 1.1 (2013): 77-105. In the early days of the Herald, I Durrell’s ideas on relativity. In contributed some notes and thoughts one set of notes that Whitehead Hammond, Andrew. “British Literary from the English perspective on has titled “The Muddle,” he writes Responses to the Suez Crisis.” Literature Durrell’s writing. Your editor has of “anti-relativity” and gives a and History 22.2 (Autumn 2013): 53-72. asked me to resume these substantial analysis of Durrell's contributions. I saw no reason to Kreuiter, Allyson. “City and Landscape of change the title of this column. I have claim for “the relationship Remembering: The Visual Textual been a keen collector of Durrell's between his AQ and science.” He Palimpsest of Alexandria in Lawrence writings since the mid-1970s; through quotes the opening “Note” in Durrell’s Justine and Balthazar.” Scrutiny2 my imprint Delos Press I published a Balthazar but ultimately rejects 17.2 (2012): 13–21. number of books by Durrell in limited as futile any “claims of analogy to letterpress editions as well as Krzakowski, Caroline. “The Problem of commentaries on Durrell's work by science by modern writers” (57- Diplomacy in Lawrence Durrell’s Robin Rock. 59). Mountolive.” Global Review 1.1 (2013): Greek studies, foreign 115-134. "Sappho: opera in three acts affairs, psychology, film . . . [sic]. Libretto from the play by Lawrence Durrell is certainly Miller, Emma. “‘We Must Not Forget That Lawrence Durrell. Music by P. There Was a Crime’: Incest, Domestic getting around! I know we all Violence, and Textual Memory in the Glanville-Hicks." look forward to the forthcoming Novels of Iris Murdoch.” Journal of Ian MacNiven in his 1998 Deus Loci and further Durrell Literature and Trauma Studies 1.2 (2012): biography of Durrell tells us that studies in and from all quarters. If 65–94. "Peggy Glanville-Hicks had you have note of new articles or brought her ill-fated operatic Morrison, Ray. “The City and Its Ontology insight into critical articles on in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet.” version of Larry's Sappho to the Durrell, please send them to me: Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary point of orchestration. . . .[I]t [email protected]. study of literature 46.2 (2013): 55–70. would eventually get as far as rehearsals, but would never Whitehead, Peter. “Early Film Clawson, James M. “Subjective appear before the public" (534). Documents.” Framework: The Journal of Diplomacy and Durrell: Response to Cinema and Media 52.1 (2011): 50–63. In 2012 the record label Toccata Caroline Krzakowski.” Global Review 1.1 (2013): 135-139. Classics released a splendid recording of the whole opera. See De Nicola, Antonella. “Sharing Eastern http://www.toccataclassics.com/ Visions: Reflections Upon Fausta cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0154-55. Cialente’s Translation of The Alexandria This link provides full casting Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.” Locating Italy. East and West in British-Italian details as well as MP3 downloads Transactions. Rodopi, 2013. 202–215. and streaming samples. I can do no better than Ekdawi, Sarah. “‘Definitive Voices of the quote the description of the Loved Dead’: Cavafy in English.” Journal Opera from Toccata’s website: of Modern Greek Studies 30.1 (2012): 129–136. Sappho, the last grand opera of Australian composer Peggy Frank, Joseph. “The Making of a Counter- Glanville-Hicks (1912–90), was Culture Icon: Henry Miller’s written in her stone cottage on Dostoyevsky (review).” Common Mykonos in 1963. Never heard Knowledge 18.2 (2012): 374–376. before this recording, Sappho ILDS Herald 10 reflects Glanville-Hicks’ work of Durrell's should see an bookseller would describe it as in fascination with the orient and incarnation which can no longer be "very good" condition), this has a folk music, encapturing the called "ill-fated.” quite spectacular inscription: "for colours of ancient Greece, with a Glanville-Hicks’ biographer, Leonora and Morris from Larry. heroic brass fanfare and epic Deborah Hayes, tells us in the CD (hush! Not too loud). Bellapaix writing for chorus, haunting booklet that "Durrell's play is an Abbey, Cyprus, 1954." I have not woodwind solos and shimmering intimate and personal exploration been able to establish who the percussion evoking the stillness of of the poetic imagination – the dedicatees were nor the crystal island waters. Deborah conflict between the creative mind, significance of the exhortation to Polaski, who creates the role of the such as Sappho's, which seeks a quietness in the inscription. disenchanted Sappho, describes it still, quiet focus, and the world of Alongside as ‘the kind of music that singers action that can intrude. With the want to sing’. The libretto, based Durrell's approval, Glanville-Hicks inscription on Lawrence Durrell’s verse-play, cut scenes, summarised others in a which is in incorporates fragments of few lines, much reduced the red ink, Sappho’s own verse. dialogue throughout and changed Durrell has This is a fine recording the ending. The composer and provided a with professional singers and playwright collaborated via letters, little orchestra of high reputation. and in September 1963, Durrell thumbnail Enormous credit must go to the and his third wife, Claude, visited sketch of conductor Jennifer Condon. She Glanville-Hicks in Athens." the Abbey has contributed to the CD booklet I have recently discovered itself. During a visit to the dealer, which also has contributions Spottify and was pleased to find Peter Harrington in Chelsea (the from Deborah Hayes, the opera available on that site. location of the shop in an musicologist and biographer of Durrell's views on the opera are expensive part of London will the composer; Margaret not recorded. Doubtless he would give a clue as to some of the high Reynolds, an academic specialist have been flattered at the prospect prices called for by this dealer), I of the "original" Sappho; and, of his play receiving the attention inspected the book and finding Charles Sligh, vice-president of of a skilled and gifted composer that the shop assistant was not the ILDS. with the prospect of the opera only a fan of Durrell but also From Condon's note it being staged. willing to negotiate on price, I would seem that the composer achieved that excellent completed a full score in 1965, An Inscribed "Pope Joan" compromise between what I despite the piano score being In my heyday of Durrell thought the book was worth rejected by the commissioning collecting, it was not infrequent to (very subjective) and what the opera company, but never got as find some rarity lurking in the dealer felt it was worth (an far as rehearsals. back of a bookshop or in a Modern objective rate). There is an excellent Firsts dealer’s catalogue. As I am pleased to say that related and dedicated website specialist book dealers put their book is now in my collection, but www.sappho.com.au with a catalogues online, the thrill of that the visit was slightly more costly photo gallery including several chase has disappeared. Presently, than I expected when I found that pictures of the composer with my first port of call online is one of Oscar Epfs’ paintings was Durrell. Glanville-Hicks gives www.abebooks.com, and earlier also available and, likewise, I Sappho herself a rather this year I found advertised a copy bought this after some dignified Tosca–like musical of Durrell's translation published negotiation on price. characterisation in the opera and by Derek Verschoyle in 1954 of Harrington's recent this is not entirely to my taste, Royidis’ "romantic biography"— catalogue "Modern Literature, but that should not distract from "Pope Joan." Although lacking a Part One A – K" offers for sale a the excitement I feel that this key dust wrapper and slightly dusty (a number of interesting Durrell ILDS Herald 11

items, some of which are 1968 when he found Larry "better Durrell in the London Guardian illustrated in the catalogue which, than ever, not nearly as circular as newspaper and BBC Radio 4. for that reason alone, is worth they say, ebullient and full of beans The London Guardian investigating. (See and ideas, waiting when we continues to serve Durrell well, http://www.peterharrington.co.u arrived with a giant magnum" having featured the Quartet as k/catalogue/modern-literature- (344). One can imagine the jollity part of the centenary celebrations part-one-a-k/) £6500 would have and frivolity of such a meeting and in 2012. See bought you a copy of Durrell's how one would have loved to have http://www.theguardian.com/ very early 1932 collection "Ten been a fly on the wall for this books/lawrence-durrell. Poems" inscribed to Walter De la reunion. Of particular interest are Mare. £4500 would have bought Leigh Fermor never himself John Crace’s "Digested Reads." you a copy of the 1938 Obelisk completed the third volume of his Crace mimics the style of each Press edition of "The Black Book" autobiographical trilogy, but his author for whose book he is extravagantly inscribed by extended work in progress, now providing a short digested read. Durrell in 1973 to his friend, the completed by his biographer These are not simple synopses actor, Peter Bull. If you still had Artemis Cooper and highly but satirical and critical money to spare, another £6500 respected travel writer Colin commentaries on the work would have bought you a copy of Thubron, has recently been themselves. Justine gets the the 1950 pamphlet "Deus Loci" published as The Broken Road: treatment at inscribed to T.S. Eliot. From the Iron Gates to Mount http://www.theguardian.com/ Athos. books/2008/nov/29/digested- Patrick Leigh Fermor classics-justine-lawrence-durrell. Artemis Cooper's page- Audio Books Crace’s tongue in cheek digest of turning biography of PLF is now The catalogue of works Justine starts thus: available in paperback with available for download has I have escaped to this island with the several references to Durrell. recently been enhanced child, Melissa's child. As the night is snatched from darkness by Arcturus, I Leigh Fermor’s easy style belies significantly with unabridged think of my friends and of my beloved the great struggle he encountered readings of The Black Book, Alexandria, with its iodine-coloured when trying to commit his vast Prospero's Cell, Bitter Lemons, The meidan of Mazarita, where the open petal knowledge and imagination to Dark Labyrinth and Pope Joan of Melissa's mouth fell upon mine like the page. Struggling to continue having been added this year. unslaked summer. Ah Melissa! with his book Roumeli, he wrote Already available from Audible Although technically to Durrell seeking a “huge and Modern Vanguard are the last missing Durrell's centenary year sympathetic room, with plenty of three novels in the Alexandria by three days, BBC Radio 4 did striding space, a large worktable, Quartet but not, curiously, Justine. honour his birthday with a half- a shaded lamp, a bed and a view The recordings made by this hour documentary broadcast on plunging away into the distance, provider are unabridged. All four 3 January 2013, "Forgetting a costing practically nothing." With volumes of the Quartet are Revolutionary: Lawrence Durrell echoes of Larry's own way of available in download form from at 100." See finding girlfriends, he picks up the 1995 readings by Nigel http://www.bbc.co.uk/ Annie, an off-duty Verlaine- Anthony in Naxos AudioBooks, but programmes/b01phktg. reading maid, who shows him as competent as these are, they are This year Lawrence around Bordeaux and who gave all abridged readings. Durrell does Durrell is or would have been him some of "the happiest hours very well indeed for audio books 100. Tim Marlow sleeps beneath of my existence." when compared with, say, William a special shelf above his bed Durrell was not at home Golding; only Lord of the Flies is which holds his collection of first when Leigh Fermor arrived in available. editions of Durrell. He is a Sommières unannounced in 1961 devotee. What do Durrell and but was at home for his visit in those bright-covered novels of The Alexandria Quartet once read ILDS Herald 12 by every open-minded reader creative work to Deus Loci. The mean today? Can his reputation journal is listed with EbscoHost, extend beyond his surviving fans DEUS the MLA bibliography, and soon and the occasional leftovers of with ProQuest. Please send scandal? Should new readers pick submissions to [email protected]. him up, what would they find? Do LOCI archive recordings and new "A Wartime interviews mark a reassessment Correspondence" of a revolutionary writer in Anna Lillios danger of being forgotten? The Australian Broadcasting Deus Loci volume 13 is in the final And Finally Corporation has produced and stages of printing and should be Readers may know of disseminated this compelling out by the end of November. This Michael Haag’s writing about, dramatic rendering of responses largest ever issue of Deus Loci is amongst other things, Egypt and to World War II by Lawrence guest-edited by Robert Haslam, an Alexandria. Yale University Press Durrell and his long-time friend independent Durrell scholar living has commissioned him to write a and correspondent, Henry Miller. in London. He has gathered what biography of Durrell. It is well Pressured by the fearful realities he calls “emended readings” by worth keeping an eye on about to engulf their countries of Corinne Alexandre-Garner, Mary Michael’s blog: expatriate residence, Durrell’s Byrne, Michael Haag, Isabelle http://michaelhaag.blogspot. Greece and Miller’s France, the Keller, Ray Morrison, Clive Scott, co.uk/. two men faced difficult personal Fiona Tomkinson, Dianne Vipond, This site obviously focuses decisions. “One ran away,” in the and Ralph Yarrow. Also included on Michael’s main interests – unsparing words of the ABC’s are reminiscences by Peter recent blogs have been about the summation, “while the other Baldwin, Mary Byrne, Paul Gotch, Templars, Byron, and Dan stayed and found a new depth in Richard Pine, Barbara Robinson, Brown’s most recent work. Of his experience of life.” Anthea Morton-Saner, Ralph particular interest to me was The program, based on Steadman, Frederic-Jacques Michael’s posting in September selections from The Durrell- Temple, and Paula Wislenef. As on the plight of the Villa Ambron, Miller Letters, 1935-1980 as Rob notes, these reminiscences now in serious danger of literally edited by Ian S. MacNiven, was may be among the last. falling down through the neglect written and recorded by David Poetry editor David of its current owner. Durrell Green and Lyn Gallacher. The Radavich has conducted another moved into the Villa Ambron in broadcast, incorporating also successful White Mice contest, and 1943 while he was living in comments by MacNiven and by readers will enjoy prize-winning Alexandria [see “Report” on p. 7]. Michael Haag, aired at 1:05 pm on poems by Steve Lautermilch, Julia Michael’s post includes a short Sunday, 14 April 2013; it was Older, Jerome Wyant, Brian Clark, note, with photographs, on his very well received by listeners. and Paul Soher. own visit to Alexandria and the Those who have the opportunity Plans for volume 14, the villa with Eve Durrell in 1999. to hear it will probably agree special centenary issue, are just There is a particularly tantalising with David Green’s own getting underway. If you’ve photo of Durrell’s writing tower assessment that “the actor who submitted an article for this issue, at the villa taken by Paul Gotch in plays Durrell [David Tredinnick] . please be patient. Each article is 1943. The picture is hazy because . . has reproduced Durrell’s voice sent out to two readers, and this badly exposed but that just adds rather well.” process involves time and careful to the mystique of the place consideration. I hope this issue where Durrell worked at the first (The editors express their will be published in time for the drafts of Prospero’s Cell and the gratitude to Ken Gammage who Vancouver conference next May. Quartet. supplied them with a recording of Please submit your articles and the broadcast.) ON MIRACLE GROUND XVIII

DURRELL & PLACE: TRANSLATION, MIGRATION, LOCATION

Vancouver, BC 14-17 May 2014

Following on the Durrell 2012 centenary celebration in London hosted by the British Library and Goodenough College, the 18th biannual conference of the International Lawrence Durrell Society will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Papers and panels on all aspects of Durrell’s works or those of his milieu are welcome. Paper and panel proposals related to “place” are particularly encouraged. Relevant themes may include Durrell’s position as a writer during the collapse of the British Empire, the politics of place in his various foreign residences (Argentina, Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Egypt, etc.), the spatial turn or cultural field in criticism, shifting national boundaries in his works and across his life, or the various translations across languages and locations in Durrell’s work.

The conference organizers welcome the submission of short abstracts (250 words) with a short biography (50 words) for proposed PAPERS or COMPLETE PANELS by 15 January 2014. Proposals for complete panels should include an abstract for the panel as a whole with the names, titles, and biographies of each presenter.

For the first time, the ILDS will include seminars in the conference. Seminars will meet for 3 hours and include a maximum of 6 participants whose papers will be read by the group prior to the conference—seminar leaders will guide the discussion of each paper and the overall seminar theme. Proposals from seminar leaders should be submitted by 1 December 2013, and accepted seminars will be listed by 15 December 2013 for registration. Seminars that consider Durrell’s works in relation to his contemporaries or milieu are particularly welcome, as are professional seminars focused on pedagogy, curricula, or the discipline.

All submissions are via the ILDS website: http://lawrencedurrell.org/wp_durrell/omgxviii/