[SOUTH AFRICA] CAMPBELL, Roy

Broken Record: Reminiscences

London: Boriswood, 1934. First Edition. First impression. Octavo. Green cloth hardcover; yellow top-stain; dustjacket; 208pp. A few spots of foxing to upper and lower edges of text block; expected offsetting to endpapers from jacket flaps, else a tight, clean, Near Fine copy. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped (priced 7s. 6d. at base of front flap), lightly foxed on front and rear panels but otherwise clean and well-preserved, Very Good or better.

The South African poet's provocative first memoir, written just a few years after his famous split with London literary society spurred by his acerbic take-down of the Bloomsbury Group in his 1931 book-length poem "The Georgiad." Much of Broken Record focuses on Campbell's early years in South Africa, with only the latter third of the book taking up his emigration to London and his early literary acquaintances, towards most of whom he is callously dismissive. Later in the decade Campbell would alienate himself further from the British intelligentsia by supporting the Fascist side in the Spanish Civil War. While Campbell styled himself more right-wing provocateur than Fascist, it is hard to sympathize in any way with the author of such sentiments as, "One can forgive the Jews anything for the beauty of their women, which makes up for the ugliness of their men. But I fail to see how a man like Hitler makes any 'mistake' in expelling a race that is intellectually subversive as far as we are concerned..." [Broken Record, p.156]. Despite reprehensible passages such as these, Broken Record remains an important document: Campbell exemplifies a certain kind of reactionary London intellectual outsider of the Thirties, a trait most notably shared by his friend Wyndham Lewis; also of course Ezra Pound but to a lesser extent such conservative Catholic writers as C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, with both of whom Campbell maintained close ties throughout his later years. A somewhat uncommon book, scarce in dustwrapper. This is an attractive example, some external foxing notwithstanding.

Price: $250.00

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