GEOFFREY WOLFF - The Duke of Deception. Memories of My Father

London England, Hodder and Stoughton, 1980. First Edition, Binding: Cloth, Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall Octavo 0340254696 Hardback Hardback. First Edition. Shelf wear to edge of D/J. Small tear to top edge of D/J. In this extraordinary nenoir, the author has undertaken a search for the truth in a life lived by lies. The life was that of Duke Wolff,. his father, who managed to live like a prince, usually on the means of a pauper. Duke was a con man, brilliant, charming, but energized by outrageous schemes and aspirations. Born into a family of position and privilege, but possessed by an appetite for caprice, he pushed beyond limits of all kinds, and eventually beyond the limits of the law. Not long after his third release from prison, he died in a small, baren apartment at the edge of the Pacific, in a seedy California town favoured by stewardesses on the move and old-timers down on their luck. To the author, Duke was 'a bad man and a good father'. With compassion and exquistic honesty, he had recaptured the paradox of his father's turbulent life, and has resurrected the crises of his own childhood ride on a rake's roller coaster. Mr. Wolff has returned his father, his own childhood and adolescence to life. Coming to terms with his conflicting emotions - anger, pride, pity, humiliation, gratitude and abiding love - about Duke, he touches the truth about many fathers and many sons. This book will take its place among the classics of American memoirs. Illustrated. 275 pp.