The Portrait Of Zelide

The Portrait of Zelide, a short biography written in the manner of Lytton Strachey, is one of the most compelling biographies of the Twentieth Century. First published in the 1920's and awarded The James Tait Black Memorial Prize, but out of print for more than forty years, Scott's biography tells the story of the 18th Century Dutch novelist Belle de Zuylen (also known as Madame de Charriere). This book is more than a biography; it is the portrait of an age. Zelide was known throughout Europe: her friends included Boswell, Rousseau, Frederick the Great and Benjamin Constant. Scott writes of her both as an important writer caught up in a personal tragedy and as a reflection of the Enlightment period. Geoffrey Scott (1884-1929) is a neglected figure whose work and life deserve more attention. Friend of Bernard and Mary Berenson, Edith Wharton, John Maynard Keynes, Vita Sackville-West, he was the product of the best educational system England had to offer. An architect, esthetician (his most famous book is probably The Architecture of Humanism), poet and the first editor of the Boswell papers, he moved with ease in scholarly, aristocratic and plutocratic circles in London, Florence and New York. In spite of his many gifts and accomplishments, he was never really able to find himself a place in the post-World War I world until a few months before his death. His tragic life is the subject of a new biography, The Life of Geoffrey Scott: The Brilliant Young Man Forever, to be published by The Edward Mellen Press