From the Elephant's Back: Collected Essays & Travel Writings

"…the proverb says that whoever sees the world from the back of an elephant learns the secrets of the jungle and becomes a seer. I had to be content to become a poet."
―Lawrence Durrell

Best known for his novels and travel writing, Lawrence Durrell defied easy classification within twentieth-century Modernism. His anti-authoritarian tendencies put him at odds with many contemporaries―aesthetically and politically. However, thanks to a compelling recontextualization by editor James Gifford, these thirty-eight previously unpublished and out-of-print essays and letters reveal that Durrell’s maturation as an artist was rich, complex, and subtle. Durrell fans will treasure this selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, Modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford’s fine editorial work. Foreword by Peter Baldwin.

"Gifford’s scholarly command of the archives shows―especially his working intimacy with the unpublished archived words of Durrell’s editors, publishers, and collaborators. I have no doubt that this collection will serve as a starting point for any number of new critical ventures into the life and writing of Lawrence Durrell."
―Charles Sligh, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
"This collection has a straightforward ambition: to redirect the interpretive perspective that readers bring to Lawrence Durrell’s literary works by returning their attention to his short prose." – From the Introduction

Best known for his novels and travel writing, Lawrence Durrell defied easy classification within twentieth-century modernism. His antiauthoritarian tendencies put him at odds with many contemporaries―aesthetically and politically. However, thanks to a compelling recontextualization by editor James Gifford, these 38 previously unpublished and out-of-print essays and letters reveal that Durrell’s maturation as an artist was rich, complex, and subtle. This edition promises to open up new approaches to interpreting his more famous works. Durrell fans will treasure this selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, modernist literature, antiauthoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford’s fine editorial work.

Born in Jalandhar, British India, Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) was a critically hailed novelist, poet, and travel writer best known for the Alexandria Quartet novels, which were ranked by the Modern Library as among the greatest works of English literature in the twentieth century. James Gifford is Professor of English and the director of the university core at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Vancouver.