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Simon Called Peter

Robert Keable

Robert Keable (1887-1927) was first a priest and missionary in the Church of England, then a novelist. Simon called Peter was his first and best known novel, which he wrote in 20 days. The novel, which is largely autobigraphical, is about a priest who has an affair with a nurse in war-time France and almost abandons his faith for love. A judge in Boston declared the book to be obscene. F. Scott Fitzgerald described it as really immoral and placed it in the apartment of Myrtle Wilson in his novel The Great Gatsby, perhaps to indicate her vulgarity. The novel is picked up by Nick Carraway, the main protagonist, who reads a bit and then drops it in disgust.

Keable died aged 40 y in Tahiti of kidney disease after having had a son with a Tahitian woman. Please click on the link above to read more about him.

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Dust jacket (click to enlarge)

Notes: The first edition of this very popular novel was issued in 16 impressions between April 1921 and October 1922. A Popular edition was issued in March 1923 and was reprinted at least 10 times, until August 1924, which is the last date in the second of two copies that I have. It was reissued in a different and more provocative dust jacket in 1925.

Inside front and rear flaps of dust jacket is written: The Wrapper is drawn by Edmund Blampied

The pages in the Popular edition shown are numbered twice: the pages are counted from 1 to 347 and numbered from 14, but page 9 is numbered xi as well.

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