Saying Life. The Memoirs of Sir Francis Rose

Francis Rose.

Cassell. London. 1961. First edition. Hardback; green cloth-bound boards, dust jacket. xiv, 416 pages. Illustrated with hors-texte black and white plates. English. 220 x 150mm. 0.65kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; slight shelf wear to jacket, light ruffling to head of spine with short 1cm tear, not price-clipped; neat contemporary inscription to front free endpaper.

The scarce memoirs of Francis Rose, the painter championed by Gertrude Stein and the 'frenemy' of Cecil Beaton. Saying Life  is a tale of riches to rags, filled with anecdotes collected in France, Germany, the Far East and England. It features a cast of artists, actors, a disturbing amount of right-wing political figures and a 'sprinkling of minor royalty', including Sarah Bernhardt, Cocteau, Berard, Isadora Duncan, Ernst Rohm, Wellington Koo, Hitler, and of course Gertrude Stein and Beaton. The veracity of Rose's life story is questionable, leading to it being nicknamed 'Saying Lies'. Having squandered his fortune Rose was hopeful that the publication of his memoirs would raise some much needed funds. He was disappointed, sales were poor and therefore copies are now scarce, especially in good order.