PLOMER, William. Ali the Lion. Ali of Tebeleni Pasha of Jannina 1741-1822. London: Jonathan Cape. [1936].
8vo. Original cloth with dust-wrapper (retaining price), sketch map and eight plates; wrappers with light marginal wear and a little discoloured in places only; a very good copy.
Very rare first edition, more so in the wrappers. Plomer, more known as novellist, writes here a non-fiction book on the Albanian ruler, who almost broke away from the Ottoman Empire a large part of the Balkans, which indirectly helped the Greeks in their struggle for self-determination. 'Ali Pasha of Jannina (1741-1822) dominated Albania and most of Greece during the Napoleonic period. Based in the Epirus (Northern Greece) city of Jannina he developed a virtually independent principality, whilst retaining his nominal position as the Ottoman governor … Despite (or perhaps because of) his barbarous reputation he was highly regarded by Napoleon, Nelson, Victor Hugo and Dumas. He developed Jannina into an impressive capital with a harem of over 600 women and an enormous financial wealth. Both as a sadist and sensualist he had a huge appetite. Many westerners visited Jannina, including Byron, and much of our understanding of Ali comes from their descriptions … The best secondary source is William Plomer Ali the Lion London 1936. This was reissued by Jonathan Cape as The Diamond of Jannina in 1970' (Balkanhistory.org).
William Plomer and Ian Fleming were very good friends, worked together in Naval Intelligence during WW2 and admired each others’ books. Plomer was instrumental in getting Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale, published, and Goldfinger was dedicated to Plomer.
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