Peter Levi

Peter Chad Tigar Levi (born May 16, 1931 in Ruislip , Middlesex , England , † February 1, 2000 ) was an English poet , writer , critic and archaeologist . He belonged to the Jesuit order for many years and was a professor at Oxford University .

life and work

Peter Levi's father was a merchant of Jewish origin who converted to Catholicism . Peter Levi attended Catholic schools. As a child he contracted polio and suffered a serious traffic accident while studying, from which he recovered slowly. Tied to the bed, he became a random reader, which shaped him for life: "Dilettantism was thrust upon me". (German: Dilettantism was granted to me. ) In 1964 he was ordained as a priest in the Jesuit order. He left the Order again in 1977 to marry Deirdre Connolly, the widow of Cyril Connolly . He finished writing Connolly's novel Shade those Laurels , which was published in 1990.

From 1984 to 1989 he was Oxford Professor of Poetry at Oxford University and was considered a candidate for the title of Poet Laureate . In 1988 he claimed to have found a previously undiscovered work by William Shakespeare ; his guess was wrong, however.

Levi wrote over sixty books, in addition to poetry, biographies, fiction and travel literature (he traveled with Bruce Chatwin and Patrick Leigh Fermor ). He was particularly interested in ancient Greece, its cultural history and archeology there.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary by Peter Forbes in the Guardian
2. ↑ See Peter Forbes' obituary

swell

• Peter Forbes: Peter Levi , obituary in The Guardian of February 3, 2000 (English)