Peter Levi
Peter Levi was a British scholar, poet, and biographer, born in 1931 into a Jewish family that converted to Catholicism. Ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1964, he taught at Campion Hall, Oxford University, until leaving the priesthood in 1977 to marry Deirdre Connolly. Levi's literary career included a controversial claim in 1988 of discovering a previously unknown poem by William Shakespeare, a finding that has not gained widespread acceptance among scholars. Throughout his life, he produced a diverse array of works, including biographies of notable figures such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson and John Milton, as well as translations and over twenty volumes of poetry. Despite facing challenges later in life, including near-total blindness, he continued to write with the support of his wife. His final publication, "Viriditas," showcases his enduring poetic talent. Levi passed away on February 1, 2000, at the age of sixty-eight, leaving behind a complex legacy marked by both acclaim and critique in the literary community.
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Subject Terms
Peter Levi
Poet
- Born: May 16, 1931
- Birthplace: Ruislip, Middlesex, England
- Died: February 1, 2000
- Place of death: Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, England
Biography
Peter Levi was born in 1931 into a Jewish family that had converted to Catholicism. Raised as a devout Christian in England, Levi was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1964. From 1965 to 1977, Levi taught at Campion Hall, a Jesuit institution within Oxford University. In 1977, he left the priesthood and married Deirdre Connolly, three years after the death of her husband, the writer Cyril Connolly. During this time, he also spent a year as archaeological correspondent for The Times newspaper before returning to academic life. In 1984, he was elected Oxford University’s professor of poetry, a largely honorary appointment that he held until 1989.
While teaching at Oxford University, Levi announced in 1988 that he had found a previously unknown poem by William Shakespeare in a manuscript at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. This supposed finding stirred up much controversy among the literary community, and the claim has not been accepted by most scholars.
After becoming almost completely blind towards the end of his life, Peter Levi found it almost impossible to compose verse. Fortunately, with the help of his wife, he recovered his gift. His last publication, a collection of poems called Viriditas, contains the moving lyrics he composed in his head, often while walking around the green where he lived in a Gloucestershire village. Levi died at the age of sixty-eight on February 1, 2000.
Throughout his life, Levi was regarded as a prolific British scholar, poet, and biographer, but some of his projects were less successful than others. His works range from a poorly reviewed translation of the Psalms in 1977 to a well-regarded translation of a book about Greece by Pausanias, the second century Greek traveler and geographer. He also published biographies of Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Edward Lear; Vergil; Horace; and John Milton, and more than twenty volumes of poetry. Two of Levi’s prose books appeared in 1984, The Noise Made by Poems and The Lamentation of the Dead, his first Oxford lecture.
Levi was a highly accomplished writer of biographies, travel books, translations, and thrillers, but he was first and foremost a poet. It is apparent from his works that Levi was most interested in producing quality commentary on the authors he was most influenced by and in finding ways to foster and expand his own poetic talent. Because of his strong desire to learn from his predecessors, Levi upheld their literary tradition in the legacy of his own verse.