“Maiden Voyage” 1946 WELCH, Denton

Description

WELCH, Denton

[303] pp.

Routledge

1945

Second Printing

8″ x 5 1/8″

VG/ VG

Maurice Denton Welch (29 March 1915 30 December 1948) was a British writer and painter, admired for his vivid prose and precise descriptions.

Maiden Voyage is an account of author Denton Welchs sixteenth year, when he ran away from his English public school and was then sent to Shanghai to live with his father. The book was Welchs first and created a sensation on publication in 1943; its frank description of public schoolboy life forced publisher Herbert Read to initially seek advice from libel lawyers. Even Winston Churchills private secretary gossiped in a letter that, the book was reeking with homosexuality? I think I must get it. Today, Welchs expressions of sexuality may seem more demure than outrageous, but his portrayal of the passions and humiliations of adolescence is graphic. As in all of Welchs novels, it is the precisely realized details of the authors physical and social surroundings that make the book such a remarkable journey.