The mere availability of funds never meant that items were bought regardless of price
The mere availability of funds never meant that items were bought regardless of price.Pressures of space brought about the continuing refinement of the library, author collections being sold to leave room for concentration of his chief aim, the perfecting of his D.H Lawrence collection. The high spot of this probably remains the manuscript of Lawrence's first novel, The White Peacock.Lazarus was one of the first private collectors to buy the manuscripts of contemporary writers. He bought stories, he bought poems; he seized every opportunity of buying letters with significant texts, amassing more than 150 Lawrence pieces addressed to 27 different correspondents.A handsome man, immaculately turned out, George Lazarus was blessed with an agile mind and appeared to make decisions easily. During the Second World War the Royal Air Force made use of these qualities, employing him first in Great Britain and then for three years in the Middle East, plotting and directing the movements of fighter squadrons. He rose to the rank of squadron leader.He saw all problems in terms of black and white: for him there were no greys. A generous and loyal friend, he never suffered fools gladly: in fact he scarcely suffered them at all.In later years his failing eyesight made it difficult to read, but he was devoted to his beautiful garden in Buckinghamshire and retained a lively interest in cricket and in sport generally.
His views on the performance of the English cricket team in Zimbabwe at the end of last year are best left unrecorded.George Louis Lazarus, stockjobber and collector: born London 15 March 1904; twice married (one son, one stepdaughter, and one son deceased); died Henley-on-Thames 11 January 1997.. Rudolf Nassauer was an underrated writer whose most important work, The Hooligan, the first in-depth analysis of Nazi psychology, became a Sixties cult book. He was born in Frankfurt in 1924 into a prosperous family of Jewish wine merchants. After Kristallnacht, on 9-10 November 1938, his father and sister fled to London, leaving the young Rudi and his mother to settle their affairs. Frau Nassauer was unacquainted with business, and the adolescent Rudi had to deal with the Nazis on the family's behalf. Shortly afterwards, he and his mother also came to England. Rudi had to learn English in order to complete his education, which he did at St Paul's School. While it was always his ambition to become a writer, he entered the family wine business, Nassauer Bros, which, after the war, specialised in German wines.In 1947 he married Bernice Rubens.
Together they cultivat-ed the friendship of writers and intellectuals, many of them their neighbours in Hampstead. Among these were Elias Canetti, Peter Vansittart and Angus Wilson. During this period, while continuing to work as a wine merchant, Nassauer wrote in his spare time. In the late 1950s, the manuscript of his first novel, The Hooligan, on which he had worked for 10 years, was submitted to publishers After numerous rejections, it was shown to me. I accepted it at once and it was published in 1960.It was launched to a fanfare of praise: Iris Murdoch called it "a most distinguished and important book", Elias Canetti found in it "the first presentation of a Nazi that belongs to literature every page is as profound as it is exciting".