DOM

[Poisoned on the orders of the French government? François-Antoine Chevrier, satirist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Dom Ambroise Pelletier, praising his recent work, and attacking the powerful and the church.

Author: 
François-Antoine Chevrier [François-Antoine de Chevrier] (1721-1762), satirical French author, who fled to Holland [Dom Ambroise Pelletier (1703-1757), curate of Senones, genealogist and illustrator]
Chevrier
Publication details: 
‘Pais le 7. Xbre. [October] 1756.’
£500.00
Chevrier

An excellent letter, exhibiting precisely the sort of indignation one would wish for from such a renowned satirist. As a result of the furore caused by the publication in 1762 of his best-known work, ‘Le Colporteur’, Chevrier fled to Holland. The French government attempted to have him extradited, and his death that same year was rumoured to have been caused by poisoning. 3pp, 4to. On bifolium. Thirty-nine lines of text. In good condtion, lightly aged. The item has been expertly mounted, and the thin white-paper mount still adheres to reverse of the final leaf.

Printed pamphlet: 'Funeral Oration of the Reverend Father Dom J. L. Shepherd Monk of the English-Benedictine Congregation, delivered [...] in the Abbatial Church of St. Mary, Stanbrook, February IV. MDCCCLXXXV.'

Author: 
R. R. John C. Hedley, D.D. O.S.B. Bishop of Newport and Menevia [ Dom J. L. Shepherd ]
Publication details: 
Printed at St. Mary's Abbey, Stanbrook, Worcester. 1885.
£50.00

[2] + 21pp., 8vo. Stitched and disbound. In grey printed wraps. In good condition, lightly aged, in chipped wraps. Now scarce.

[Peter Levi, poet and Jesuit priest.] Holograph collection of nine poems, titled 'The Element', with signed autograph note from Dom Moraes explaining their background.

Author: 
Peter Levi [Peter Chad Tigar Levi] (1931-2000), Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, 1984-1989, and Jesuit priest [Dom Moraes (1938-2004), Indian poet]
Publication details: 
Dated by Levi to the period November 1957 to January 1958. Moraes' note dated 10 June 1963.
£750.00

14pp., 4to. In exercise book with green printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper. The first page carries the title 'The Element', with the words 'Peter Levi S.J. | Nov. '57-Jan. '58' in the top right-hand corner. With occasional light corrections. The second poem ('Out of shaking') has the directions: 'No title & no commas', and the last but one ('Unfinished Elegy'), which is the longest at 4pp., is annotated: 'There ought to be three parts or possibly four.

[Peter Levi, S.J., English poet.] Unpublished holograph poem ( 'P. L.') titled 'For Henrietta and Dom. | (December, 1960.)' Addressed to the Indian poet Dom Moraes and his wife Henrietta Moraes, lover of Lucien Freud and model for Francis Bacon.

Author: 
Peter Levi [Peter Chad Tigar Levi] (1931-2000), Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford and Jesuit priest [Dom Moraes (1938-2004), Indian poet; his wife Henrietta Moraes (1931-1999)]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. December 1960.
£280.00

2pp., foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. A fair copy of a twenty-eight line poem, arranged in seven four-line stanzas. Signed at end 'P. L. | December 1960.' The first stanza reads 'Rain-threaded gull-wheeling bell-clamorous air, | by wind shifted, by smoke lightly weighted, | in which sirens beautifully despair, | no monumnet crumbles uncelebrated,'. The poem ends with a simile of 'Adam when he woke: | stood for a moment as if he had been blind, | and bent suddenly over Eve, and spoke.' There is no indication that the poem has been published.

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