Memoir of Maurice Magnus

158pp, sparsely illustrated in black and white. In pictorial boards, linen over spine. Coloured endpapers. 8vo. Boards rubbed at edges and faded, spine label peeling. Ex lending library with usual markings, else internally neat, clean, bright and tight. Maurice Magnus (1876-1920) was an American traveller who met and allegedly stalked D H Lawrence later in his life. Magnus’s Memoirs of the Foreign Legion (1924), which exposed the cruelty of life in the Foreign Legion was published posthumously with a damning 80pp introduction by Lawrence. Lawrence evolved his introduction into an essay which he described as ‘the best single piece of writing, as writing’ he had ever done. It is published here, for the first time in its entirety and under the title Lawrence gave it. The volume also includes Norman Douglas’s retort to Lawrence, ‘D H Lawrence and Maurice Magnus: A Plea for Better Manners’ , and Lawrence’s 1926 letter to the New Statesman, as well as excerpts from ‘Dregs: Experiences of an American in the Foreign Legion’ by Magnus, and various critical and analytical commentary. Hard to find.