FORSTER, E. M.

£1,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Alexandria: A History and a Guide. Second and revised edition, signed limited issue, number 135 of 250 copies signed by the author and intended for members of the Royal Archaeological Society of Alexandria.Lawrence Durrell, author of the Alexandria Quartet (1957-60), wrote that in this work "the whole historical perspective of the city, in all its variety, has been captured and fixed in a series of short essays brightly starred with all the virtues of this fine artist. With a marvellous economy he brings the place to life - and gives life to the great personages who inhabited it: philosophers, poets, mathematicians, courtesans. Each portrait is a cameo. And the book despite its strictly utilitarian form and severely practical arrangement of matter is the work of a master essayist. It is in fact vintage Forster".The first edition of 1922 was destroyed in "a very large proportion" during the Blitz (Kirkpatrick, p. 39). In later years the author himself faced troubles securing a copy, leading him to state in a letter in 1956, "I am afraid both editions of my Alexandrias are extinct".

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