Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk
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Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk | |
|---|---|
 A police photograph of Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk | |
| Born | Geoffrey Wladyslaw Vaile Potocki de Montalk 6 October 1903 Remuera, Auckland, New Zealand |
| Died | 14 April 1997 (aged 93) Brignoles, Provence, France |
| Occupation | Poet, writer |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Period | 20th century |
| Notable works | Lament for Sir John Penis; Katyn Manifesto |
Count Geoffrey Wladislas Vaile Potocki de Montalk (10 June 1903 – 14 April 1997) was a poet,
In 1926, de Montalk left his wife and small daughter in New Zealand to be a poet by "...follow(ing) the golden road to Samarkand". He travelled to England but moved in 1949 to Draguignan in the south of France where he obtained land and a ramshackle stone cottage – the Villa Vigoni – deep in the Provençal countryside. He did not return to New Zealand until 1983. Between 1984 and 1993, he followed the sun by spending summers in either New Zealand or France. He died at Brignoles in France in 1997 and was buried at Draguignan.
Career
Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk was one of a group of New Zealand poets which included his friends A. R. D. Fairburn and R. A. K. Mason. However, his proposed career as a romantic poet was severely affected by a court case in 1932. He was arrested after attempting to publish a manuscript of erotic translations of works by Rabelais and Verlaine, with three short bawdy verses of his own. Though the manuscript had not actually been published, it had been shown to a printer at the Methodist Recorder in London who reported de Montalk to the police on the grounds of obscenity. The subsequent charge was "obscene libel", specifically in relation to the work "Lament for Sir John Penis".
On 8 February 1932, he appeared before
He emerged from prison bitter and determined to flout English convention. He adopted a mock-
He returned to England in 1935, to cover the Silver Jubilee of
From 1936 onwards, Potocki produced his extreme right-wing literary publication, the Right Review (1936–73).
It is our aim to show that the
Divine Right of Kings is the sanest and best form of government, being in the last resort the only fount of power and consequently of human life. We intend to prove that such government is intensely beneficial to the whole human race including the lowest races of mankind. In this way we hope to provide the Right Wing with a living ideology.[2][4]
The publication was noted for its strong support of the Spanish Nationalists; it attacked T. S. Eliot for not expressing support for the Nationalists.[3] The Right Review also published poetry by Roy Campbell and D. S. Savage.[3]
Over the next four decades, Potocki published his own poetry and pamphlets. In 1943, informed by Poles living in London about the Katyn massacre of 15,000 Polish servicemen by Britain's ally, the Soviet Union, Potocki published what he considered to be his most important piece of writing, his Katyn Manifesto.
The British government had been keen to keep the atrocity quiet, which the Soviet Union blamed on
Legacy
In 2001, his cousin Stephanie de Montalk wrote a biography of this enigmatic and colourful figure. His Right Review is currently archived in the Alexander Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand, which also holds all his 105 original works.
References
- ^ Écrits de Paris: revue des questions actuelles, Centre d'études des questions actuelles, politiques, économiques et sociales, 2007
- ^ ISBN 9780718501433, (pp. 183–4).
- ^ a b c Stanley Weintraub, The Last great cause. The intellectuals and the Spanish civil war. London: W. H. Allen, 1968. (p. 157, 165–6)
- ISBN 0313243360(p. 409).
- ^ The Katyn connection, strangeflowers.wordpress.com. 14 April 2010.
- ^ "Gaol for "King": Former New Zealander (page down)". Papers Past. 25 October 1943.
- ^ Mulhall (2021), p. 80
Further reading
- Dunmore, John (2006). Wild Cards: Eccentric Characters from New Zealand's Past. Auckland, N.Z.: New Holland. ISBN 1-86966-132-X.
- Rigby Graham, 'Count Potocki of Montalk', in Parenthesis; 12 (2006 November), p. 19-20
- de Montalk, Stephanie (2001). Unquiet World: The Life of Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk. Wellington, N.Z.: Victoria University Press. ISBN 0-86473-414-X.
- de Montalk, Geoffrey (1993). Aristo: Confessions of Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk. Christchurch, N.Z.: Leitmotif. ISBN 0-473-02220-6.
- Macklin, Graham & Fowlie, Craig (2019) "The fascist who would be king: Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk". Patterns of Prejudice. 53 (2): 152–177. 2019. S2CID 151027955.
- Martin, Chris (11 May 2007). ""I've Spent My Life Being Me": The Life and Singular Exploits of Count Potocki de Montalk". THE LOST CLUB JOURNAL. Archived from the original on 20 December 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
- Mulhall, Joe (2021). British Fascism After the Holocaust: From the Birth of Denial to the Notting Hill Riots 1939–1958. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-62414-6.
