ISLE OF CAPRI.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 11

ISLE OF CAPRI.

AND AXEL MUNTUE.

FAMOUS MAN "UNHAPPY."

HAUNTED BT AUTO-HUNTERS

The Kle of Capri is known to many thousands of folk in New Zealand by reason of a melody which was widely popular a few years ago. There are others to whom the name Capri recalls that fascinating book of reminiscences, "The Story of San Michele," published in 1930 and written by Dr. Axel Munthe, the famous Swedish author and physician, who made his home in Capri for a period of retirement. Included in his estate was the ruined chapel of San Michele. A famous physician long before the Great War, and physician to the King and Queen of Sweden, Axel Munthe moved for health reasons to Paris, where he was inundated by the elite of the French capital. He was very skilful in diagnosis, and particularly successful with nerve cases, as bis strong personality had a beneficial influence on the sufferers. Wearied of the hypochondriacs who flocked to him, and wealthy, he retired to Capri where he built a beautiful abode which contained many] art treasures, and where his guests included many Royal personages and famous men.

He spent so much on the place that he had to emerge l from his retirement in 1890 and practise in Rome to make more money. There his success was as marked as in Paris, and he also lived and practised in London, and was on the point of settling in England when the war broke out. He worked through the cholera epidemic at Naples, took part in the rescue work after the Messina earthquake, and served as a doctor in the French Army during the war when he lost the use of one of his eyes. He ever retained his Capri home, however, as a placc of retirement. From the proceeds of the German edition of "San Michele," Munthe gave 10,000 marks to •« fund for men blinded in the war. German doctor* resented

anti-German references in the book and raised 10,000 marks to return Munthe's gift, but he wrote to the German Press recanting his former anti-German attitude and promising to re-cast later editions of the book, whereupon his gift was accepted. In 1933 he sent £5500 from the profits of one of his books to the King of Sweden asking hiru to distribute it "for the good of the blind, the Lapps and the birds." Increasing seniiblindness forced Munthe to dictate Lis writings, but an operation restored his sight in 1936, and he was then able for the first time to read his famous book "San Michele" for himself. Love of animals and birds permeates his books, and he has created as bird sanctuaries the isle of Capri and the Swedish isle of Oeland.

One can therefore imagine the joy of an Auckland admirer of "San Michele," when, on his way to England by the Orama and within sight of Capri as the ship left Naples, he discovered that Dr. Axel Munthe himself was a fellow-pas-sen<*er, having joined the ship at Naples. Now a venerable figure at 81 years of a tr e (which causes one to realise that he wrote "San Michele" at the age of 72 years), Munthe, the Aucklander soon found, retains the vigorous personality which made hypochondriacs quail, which 'attracted the famous people of the j world, and which gleams magnetically through his writings.

Autograph Secured. "I had a yarn with him," writes the tourist to a friend in Auckland of the experience. "The wife bought his book ("San Michele") from the ship's barber and succeeded in persuading Munthe to autograph it. Munthe is an unusual fellow. When I first approached him he denied his identity, but when he realised that I was genuinely interested he admitted that he was the man himself. He told me that he was 'not a happy man.' In explanation he said that he had been living on Capri, but that visitors to the island gave him noj rest, and that on some days he was | asked to give as many as 200 autographs. Munthe has no time for the young woman who slaps on the powder and paint. He told me that when a particularly highlv-painted American girl asked him for his autograph he refused to give it until she went and washed her face. Cheers for Dr. Munthe!" I