MANUSCRIPT. ASCANIA - NOVA. THE PARADISE OF BEASTS. A BOOK OF MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS. (ASKANIA)

First Edition In English. 4to. pp xix, 450. Bound carbon typescript with some handwritten corrections, possibly by the translators Eden and Cedar Paul. Green cloth lettered gilt at the spine. Slightly dusty else very good indeed. Blind stamp of 'University Typewriting Office, Lloyds Bank Chambers, Carfax, Oxford.' From a house in Berkeley Square, London, once owned by the Bedford family. A curiosity - this English translation of the German work 'Askania Nova' published in Berlin by Neuman-Neudamm in 1930 was never published in English and exists only in bound typescript. The Duke of Bedford's zoo at Woburn is mentioned in the 'postface' of the book as, with Askania, one of the three private zoos in the world, the other being Blauuw in Holland. It appears that the Zoo (or the Duke) commissioned the distinguished couple Eden and Cedar Paul to translate this sizeable work - an expensive commission. They were major translators of best selling woks by Emil Ludwig, Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig and Rene Fulop-Miller. The English book was never officially published. Cedar Paul, nee Gertrude Mary Davenport (1880 Ð 1972) was a singer, author, translator and journalist, her husband Maurice Eden Paul (1865 - 1944) was a British socialist activist, physician, writer and translator. Minor corrections in a neat small handwriting on many pages, possibly by the Paul's or the Duke himself. One handwritten page about where ,in the original, the illustrations were placed. The author Woldemar [1877-1946] and his elder brother Friedrich Jakob (Eduardovich) von Falz-Fein [1863-1920] represented the third generation of this family of Ukranian landholders who raised animals on their large estates, near Askania-Nova in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, located within the dry Tavriya steppe. Friedrich, in 1890, as the oldest son took over the management of Askania-Nova and proceeded to develop it not only as a sheep and horse ranch (supplying the Russian army with horses) but as an animal park and a nature preserve. In 1897 he created a zoo and a botanical garden In 1899, nearly extinct wild Przhevalski horses were brought from the Gobi steppes to Askania Nova. His animal park became a model for other such ventures, studied by zoo directors and zoologists who came from all over the world to visit its million acres of wild horses, antelope, buffaloes, eagles, every kind of bird and animal. In 1914, the Czar visited Askania-Nova and was so pleased that he made Friedrich a baron (adding "von" to the hyphenated family name). On March 1919 the Askania-Nova was confiscated from the Falz-Fein family by the Red Army as part of the state nationalization program. The last owner who refused to evacuate to Germany was the wife of Friedrich Falz-Fein, Sofia-Louise Bohdanivna (Gotlieb) Knauff, who was shot by two Red Army Guardsmen for refusing to surrender her estate. On April 1, 1919 the Askania-Nova was declared the People's preserve park. During both World War I and World War II the reserve was devastated. It is now going again as a 'biosphere'. In 2008, Askania was named one of 7 natural wonders of Ukraine. Very good with cean text.…