Author(s): Stephanie de Montalk

Biographies & Memoirs

Poet, polemicist, pagan, and pretender to the throne of Poland, Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk was one of the glittering generation of New Zealand poets of the 1930s. His career took a strange turn after he was imprisoned for obscene libel. Following a celebrated trial in London, he became increasingly eccentric, dressing in mock-medieval garb, claiming the throne of Poland, and issuing a stream of poetry and pamphlets, before returning to New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s. This is the first time his full story has been told and it will be relevant to those interested in the literature of obscenity, the history of censorship, and private press publishing in the 20th century.