Hitler

Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) was a British novelist, painter, essayist, and polemicist. Credited with being the founder of the only modernist movement from Britain, Vorticism, Lewis approached politics as an aesthetic discipline.

His 1931 work Hitler was written after his visit to Germany that year and highlights the charged atmosphere and uneasy tension that permeated Berlin. Bringing his wit and humor to analyze a country on the eve of revolution, Lewis argues that in contemporary 'emergency conditions', Hitler may truly be the best option for Germans.

A Controversial Legacy

• Branded a National Socialist sympathizer, Wyndham Lewis's reputation never recovered from the release of this book.
• Even later disavowals in The Hitler Cult and The Jews, Are They Human? (both published in 1939) failed to restore his image.
• Throughout the 1930s, Lewis persisted in his advocacy of what is now termed "appeasement".

During World War II, he fled to the United States and Canada, working to distance himself from his 1931 writings. His later work began explicitly praising a radical individualism, a theme that had been ever-present in his writing but never before at the forefront.

He returned to England after the war and went blind in 1951. Despite his blindness, he continued to write critiques and fiction of such quality that he experienced a brief renaissance of popularity before his death in 1957. Nevertheless, the shadow of Hitler continues to haunt the legacy of Wyndham Lewis.

A New Edition of a Controversial Work

Antelope Hill is proud to release Wyndham Lewis's Hitler, in print for the first time since 1972. This edition includes an original foreword by John "Borzoi" Chapman, allowing readers to judge for themselves the character of this unique artist.