The Isle of Lanka: Ceylon 1955 Jinadasa Vijayatunga ~ Sri Lanka ~ Travel ~ History ~ Description

Title: The Isle of Lanka: Ceylon

Author: J. [Jinadasa] Vijayatunga

Description: First Edition. Boards in dark green cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Previous owner's bookplate and name written on front endpapers, else clean and unmarked. Light but still detectable smoky odor. Dust jacket has light chipping at spine ends; front panel has a small hole in bottom right corner and a short closed tear to top edge; not price clipped (Rs. 12/-); in an archival mylar sleeve. 30 illustrations on plates. Index. xii + 244 pages.

A history of Ceylon and the Singhalese way of life and culture from the early times up to 1947, when she became an Independent Dominion within the British Commonwealth. It depicts the characteristics of its inhabitants, both urban and rural, and presents a picture of an ancient civilization making gallant efforts to prevent its obliteration.

The author, Jindasa Vijayatunga (b. 1902), was well known in Ceylon and India as an educator, journalist and poet. He native of southern Ceylon, he taught in Tagore's school in Bengal, and was then an examiner in Sinhalese for Calcutta University, 1927-8. He taught in New York from 1928 to 1931 before he went to London as a journalist. He edited Ceylon's first English literary monthly, The Librarian, and jointly edited the quarterly Island Review. He lived most of his adult life abroad in America, England and India, before returning to Sri Lanka towards the end of his life.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good

Publisher: Orient Longmans Ltd.
Place: Bombay Calcutta Madras
Year: 1955

Keywords: Sri Lanka, history, travel, description,