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A rich, intimate embrace of Capri, which was a magnet for artistic renegades and a place of erotic refugeIsolated and arrestingly beautiful, the island of Capri has been a refuge for renegade artists and writers fleeing the strictures of conventional society from the time of Augustus, who bought the island in 29 BC after defeating Antony and Cleopatra, to the early twentieth century, when the poet and novelist Jacques d'Adelswrd-Fersen was in exile there after being charged with corrupting minors, to the 1960s, when Truman Capote spent time on the island. We also meet the Marquis de Sade, Goethe, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Compton Mackenzie, Rilke, Lenin, and Gorky, among other astonishingly vivid characters. Grounded in a deep intimacy with Capri and full of captivating anecdotes, Jamie James's Pagan Light tells how a tiny island served as a wildly permissive haven for people -- queer, criminal, sick, marginalized, and simply crazy -- who had nowhere else to go.
About the Author
Born and raised in Texas, educated at Williams College, Jamie James worked as a freelance writer in New York for more than twenty years. He contributed frequently to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and National Geographic Traveler, among many others, and served as art critic at The New Yorker and The Times of London. In 1999 he moved to Indonesia to concentrate on writing books. He is the author of fiction, biography, and long-form criticism. He and his partner own and operate two restaurants in Seminyak, Bali.
