Norman George Douglas

Born Dec. 8, 1868, in Tilquhillie, Scotland; died Feb. 15, 1958, on the island of Capri, Italy. Scottish writer and scholar.

Douglas joined the diplomatic service in 1893 and lived in India and St. Petersburg from 1894 to 1896. He later studied zoology, geology, and archaeology. Douglas’ first literary works were the collections Stories of an Amateur (1901) and Country of Lilacs (1911). In his satirical novel South Wind (1917), he depicted life on the imaginary island of Nepenthe. Old Calabria (1915) is a humorous description of his travels in Italy. In 1930 he published Goodbye to Western Culture,which was followed in 1933 by his memoirs, Looking Back and in 1946 by Late Harvest. In his works Douglas strove to escape from social problems into a world of fantasy.