SOURCE: "Norman Douglas: A Reconsideration," in South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2, April, 1950, pp. 226-36.

In the following essay, Webster examines Douglas's reputation and the reception of his works by critics and the general reading public. He concludes that the autobiographical nature of Douglas's work accounts for its abiding energy and vibrancy.

In the burgeoning of the 1920's, when every publisher's list seemed to make literary history, few writers enjoyed a greater succès d'estime than Norman Douglas. Everybody who thought of himself as belonging to the cognoscenti, the intelligentsia, the sophisticates, or even the intelligent minority, admired South Wind. For the American tourist-third bound for Europe this book must have been almost the familiar traveling companion that Joyce's Ulysses was on the return voyage. Less temperate Douglas devotees read all of his books and bought them too—often in expensive limited editions. As one satisfied purchaser of Birds...