DE BOSIS, Lauro; DRAPER, Ruth (trans.).

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Icaro. First edition in English, first printing, US issue, inscribed by Ruth Draper, the translator and lover of De Bosis, to the volume's publisher, "To G. F. J. Cumberlege with the grateful regards of Ruth Draper, Nov. 1933". Cumberlege, vice president at Oxford University Press New York from 1928 to 1934, was also a decorated soldier who, like De Bosis, received great praise for his valiant actions in Italy.Geoffrey Fenwick Jocelyn Cumberlege (1891-1979) "had been a distinguished soldier, and to all the critical problems of his publishing career he brought the military virtues of leadership, quick decision, and positive action" (ODNB). He was thrice mentioned in despatches during the First World War and received the Military Cross, the Italian Croce de Guerra, and numerous other honours. He joined Oxford University Press after his demobilization and was later appointed as vice president of the press's failing branch in New York. Cumberlege revitalized the business to great success; among his publications were distinguished American children's books and T. E. Lawrence's translation of The Odyssey, published the year before this translation of De Bosis.Ruth Draper (1884-1956) was an American actress whose passionate love affair with De Bosis was cut short after the writer, in true Icarus style, was shot down by Mussolini's forces while flying above Rome and hurling thousands of antifascist leaflets down upon the city. Draper never fully recovered from her loss and honoured D

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