The Colossus of Maroussi.

MILLER, Henry.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 127544

New York : Colt Press, 1941.

True first edition of the author’s landmark travel book and frequently cited as one of his finest. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, “To Tania and Jimmy, from their good friend, Henry Miller, N.Y., 12/3/41.” The recipients were James and Tania Stern, close friends of the author. Very good in the rare original dust jacket, which is in  very good condition with some rubbing and wear.

Like the ancient colossus that stood over the harbor of Rhodes, Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi stands as a seminal classic in travel literature. It has preceded the footsteps of prominent travel writers such as Pico Iyer and Rolf Potts. The book Miller would later cite as his favorite began with a young woman’s seductive description of Greece. Miller headed out with his friend Lawrence Durrell to explore the Grecian countryside: a flock of sheep nearly tramples the two as they lie naked on a beach; the Greek poet Katsmbalis, the “colossus” of Miller’s book, stirs every rooster within earshot of the Acropolis with his own loud crowing; cold hard-boiled eggs are warmed in a village’s single stove, and they stay in hotels that “have seen better days, but which have an aroma of the past.”