The British Library’s entries for the first three of Arnold Safroni-Middletons’ travel books were published by ‘Grant Richards’ who had been a well known figure in the Edwardian literary world. Apart from one letter addressed to Arnold Mddleton from Grant Richards in 1950, I have no details of their relationship. I recall trying to find out, but I believe all the files of Grant Richards are in American universities. There are entries for Grant Richards on the internet and one ‘blog’ by an academic whose view is that Grant Richards had been an unusual and experimental publisher. Unfortunately, there appears to be no mention of Arnold Middleton in Grant Richards autobiography.

There are two entries for ‘'South Sea Foam'’ on the British Library catalogue. It was first published in 1919 by Methuens. Many years ago I wrote to them, enclosing the book and suggesting a re-print which they declined to do. (Not that ‘'South Sea Foam'’ is any different from the other travel books - it just has more retellings of Samoan and Maori legends.)

Earlier this century, a South Sea site ‘Samoan Sensations‘ began publishing South Sea Foam, chapter by chapter. It was not possible to contact the site and they did not reply to my e.mails. This was the first time I became aware that there was a practical interest in his writing - though second hand books were often put up for sale in Australia. Subsequently South Sea Foam has become a pirated copy. There were entries on ‘Arnold Safroni-Middleton’ on the ‘Internet’ almost when the ‘Internet’ first started as his march is well known and is also the regimental march of the ‘Army Pay Corps’ and they featured biographical details on Middleton on their site.

Safroni-Middleton’s fist novel Gabrielle of the Lagoon was published by ‘Grant Richards.’ It was followed by Sestrina in 1920. published by Methuens. It is believed that Sestrina had been Middleton’s own favourite of his novels. He wrote a poetic version of the novel in 1931 which was published by ‘Richards’ (Presumably a return to ‘Grant Richards’ ) and called it a lyrical drama. I have a photocopy of this from the British Library somewhere, but did not research it much. Middleton produced his own edited version of this book in 1958 and ‘copac’ lists a few copies, but it is unlikely many copies of this version now exist.

Middleton published other novels with a South Sea setting in the years after Sestrina. It is believed that he might have sold one of these novels for a film production but I have traced nothing about this at all and have no idea if a film was made, (But I think it unlikely. ) The novels are An Island Wooing 1921, No Extradition 1923, and An Island Princess 1924.

The interesting novel from this period is Ragged Romance 192. It is closest to the travel books and uses one Maori legend around which Middleton constructs a tale. It has a New Zealand setting. It might well have been the closest he came to writing a popular success and came out both in a hardback and ‘paperback’ copy. There are passages where he has simply just lets his imagination rip. An older member of staff at one library I worked at remembered this book. It had been on his parent’s shelves and seem to recall that he thought it had been written by a woman - Elinor Glynn - or someone similar - due to the ‘colourful’ prose. (Middleton lived in South London and had a local audience for his books.)

Middleton notes that his novel A Child of the Forest had been filmed but the film has not been traced. He also lists a book called The Portals of Noa (A serial published by Ward Lock Ltd) but I have not traced this.

One can only presume that is was in the 1930s that Middleton’s ‘rosary’ broke and his books were either privately printed or were published by dubious or fly by night publishers. His writing certainly took a different turn. I had wondered if the revival of Imperial Echoes in 1940,and it success during the last ten years of his life, had in some way ‘boosted’ his creative life and resulted in the output of these years - though much of the out-put is re-writing earlier material. I suspect there will be very few copies of these books in the public domain and a some are not listed in either the ‘British Library’ catalogue or ‘Copac’ - though ‘Copac’ does list the titles of some books that are not in the ‘British Library’

Towards the end of his life, Middleton joined the ‘Robert Louis Stevenson Society’ and it is most likely that he was aided in his last years by people involved with this society. Again, this has been difficult to check as the members are no longer alive and no records were kept for the London Branch of the society. His final book of poetry and a final travel book were published by the ‘Fortune Press’ in 1950.

(I have a privately printed booklet which of some poems that Middleton worked on during the thirties. It has no cover or date.)

Middleton had been told that there would be no market for Under Many Name. My father recalled that Grant Richards had told Middleton so too. I am not sure of this publisher but it might just have been a printer or a vanity type publisher. It is possible that very few copies were printed. I do not know It is the exactly same book as The Priestlike Task which the British library lists as being published 1937 but this is published by the ‘World Wide Press’ The book was completely re-written and called The Dreaming Skull in 1948

THE TWO SHELLEYS, World Wide Press, was an essay of 38 pages and had been produced as a booklet. I do not have a date.

THE PAGAN, The World Wide Press, (I think 1948. (80 pages) was an oddity in that it is a poem of the 1930’s re-written as prose.

Tropic Shadows seems to have been published by two publishers. I have a copy published by 'The Richards Press in 1927. I have exactly the same copy - with different boards and altered title page - published by' Barse & Co.' (The typescript and photographs are identical) It has the address of 'New York, N.Y' 'Newark N.J' printed on the title page under the publisher. There is no date for this copy.

The front-piece to this book is the photograph of Arnold Middleton in fin-de-siecle vagabond attire; it is the first appearance of the photograph. In the forward, Middleton writes 'Yesterday I discovered a grey hair in the locks of high romance.' At the time of the book's publication, he lived in Venner Road and the description by Roma Doohan, his niece, belongs to this period. I put this description in chapter three of the biography I wrote.

1. Sailor and Beachcomber, Confessions of a life at sea, in Australia and amid the islands of the Pacific ... With twenty-four illustrations. pp. 304. Grant Richards: London, 1915.
2. A Vagabond’s Odyssey ... With sixteen illustrations, pp. 327. Grant Richards: London, 1916.
3. Wine-dark Seas and Tropic Skies, reminiscences and a romance of the South Seas [With plates], pp. 304. Grant Richards: London, 1918.
4. South Sea Foam, the romantic adventures of a modern Don Quixote in the Southern Seas, pp. xx. 284. Methuen & Co.: London, 1919.
5. South Sea Foam, The romantic adventures of a modern Don Quixote in the Southern Seas, New York: George H. Doran Co.: [1920].
6. Gabrielle of the Lagoon: a romance of the South Seas, pp. 285. Grant Richards: London, 1919.
7. Sestrina. A romance of the south seas, pp. 256. Methuen & Co.: London, 1920.
8. Sestrina. A lyrical drama of the pagan South seas. (Written from the author’s prose romance “Sestrina,” a novel.), London : Richards, 1931.
9. An Island Wooing pp. 286. John Long: London, 1921.
10. Island Princess. pp. 308. Jarrolds: London, 1924.
11. No Extradition, A romance of the South Sea Islands, pp. 320. Ward, Lock & Co.: London & Melbourne, 1923.
12. Ragged Romance, London : Jarrolds, 1924.
    
    
13. Under Many Names, pp. 255. Mitre Press: London, [1937.]
14. The Vandyck-Beard, pp. 260. Hilary Book Co.: London, [1946.]
15. The Two Shelleys, World Wide Press
16. The Pagan, World Wide Press, 1948?
17. The Dreaming Skull, pp. 246. World Wide Press: London, [1948.]
18. The Priestlike Task, pp. 157. World-Wide Press: London, [1947.]
19. Love’s Parliament. [With Subconscious philosophy, by A. Safroni-Middleton.], auth: LORENZO, Dante, pp. 59. World Wide Press: London, [1948.]
20. In the Green Leaf. A chapter of autobiography, pp. 199. Fortune Press: London, 1950.
21. The Ship’s Figure-Head. Rhymed improvisations, new and selected. Autobiographical, pp. 47. Fortune Press: London, 1950.
22. Tropic Shadows, The Richards Press 1927
23. Tropic Shadows, Barse & Co, New York, N.Y., Newark N.J.
24. A Child of the Forest
25. The portals of Noa (A serial published by Ward Lock Ltd)