the duke and the thin white duke
DENTI DI PIRAJNO, Alberto. A Grave for a Dolphin. [London:] Andre Deutsch. [1956.]
8vo. Original cloth, spine lettered in gilt with illustrated and not price-clipped wrapper, designed by Biro; pp. 192; plates after photographs, wrapper with two small repairs, one marginal, toning to endpapers, otherwise very good.
Very rare first edition. The Duke, physician and colonial administrator Alberto Denti di Pirajno, who had worked in Italian controlled Africa, i.e. Libya (governor of Tripoli from 1941 to 1943, when he surrendered to the British), Ethiopia and Somaliland wrote this book of anecdotal recollections of these countries in English. He wrote as well poetry under the name Hasân-El-Tarâs, on gastronomy and a novel. His African travel writing was admired by Harold Nicholson and Tanja Blixen. This rather uncommon book was among David Bowie's 100 favourite books. David Bowie's preface to his wife's memoir I am Imam he stated that this book was an inspiration for his song Heroes, especially for the lines 'I, I wish you could swim, Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim'. In a ~i~Vogue interview of 2021 she commented 'this book is really special because, funny enough, way before David and I met, this was one of his favorite books. And actually, he told me that some of the lyrics from his song 'Heroes' were actually inspired by this book. And then of course, finally when we meet, we can't believe that we both adore the same book'.
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