Why Potocki?

Francestown: Typographeum, 1981. Limited private press edition. First edition. Hardcover. Fine copy. Photographs by the author. 8vo. Linen cloth. Printed label on back-strip (spare label tipped in). Pp. 60. Frontispiece and two plates, mounted. 100 copies hand-set, printed letterpress and bound by R. T. Risk. Issued without a dust-jacket. Photographs by the author. This is an account of three visits made by the author to the Villa Vigoni, the Provenal home of the eccentric private press printer and poet, Count Potocki of Montalk. It tells why the visits happened, how the author became involved in the Potockian drama, and what led up to the inevitable quarrel. It also touches on such interesting matters as the villainy of the Archbishop of Cant, why nobody is talking about Dylan Thomas and Caitlin Macnamara, the importance of what was said at one of Christina Foyle's literary luncheons, and why the Princess Carmen de Bourbon preferred to pull out grape stumps. The author writes: "It was all much the same. Principally, there were the long monologues for which my presence seemed welcome. At the meals which stretched on for hours--and now sometimes outside under a tree--or as I poked through the 'archives' or read one of the newspaper articles collected by a 'clipping agency', Potocki would seize upon a memory and begin a new story. As he did so, he brought out all his impressive dramatic gifts. His voice would become oratorical. He would shift into imitative caricatures of his subjects. His eyes would flash. His hands would weave through the air or pound the table. He would be totally swept away by indignation or amusement. It was an engrossing spectacle. Whether it was also real theater is something I have often wondered about. At times it seemed as it the actor had forgotten where he was.