The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest; With an Introduction by Graham Greene
New York: Pelligrini & Cudahy, 1952. Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket, uncut. Trace of speckling to top edge, touch of creasing to the head of the bright clean dust jacket. About fine. Item #744
"I WAS HUNG UP AGAIN. THE PAIN WAS INTENSE NOW BUT I FELT GREAT CONSOLATION OF SOUL"
First American edition of Father John Gerard's account of eighteen harrowing years as a Jesuit priest in Elizabethan England. Clad in a splendid example of the illustrated dust jacket prepared by Foujita for the American edition.
Originally composed in Latin, Fr. Gerard's powerful narrative of his time as a fugitive and a prisoner of the Crown is "one of the most remarkable documents of the period. In his memoir he describes in gripping detail the story of how in 1588, a newly ordained priest at the age of twenty-four, he was smuggled ashore in his native England and underwent the perilous adventures that attended his itinerant ministry" (Robert Ellsberg). "It was the end of October, raining and wet, and we passed a sleepless night. Nor did we dare to talk, for the wood was close to a house. However, in little more than a whisper we held a conference. Would it be better to make for London together or separate so that if one of us was caught the other might get away safely?" Graham Greene's short Introduction places a modern context on the English missionary efforts of the early Jesuits: "That homecoming has been enacted in many countries during our half-century since Father Pro landed at Veracruz in his bright cardigan and his striped tie and his brown shoes, but here, in Gerard's narrative, it is happening in our own Norfolk, to us."
With Fr. Caraman's Dedication ("For M.C. D'Arcy") and Translator's Preface: "The Latin text of Gerard's Autobiography has been used by historians of the Society of Jesus from the early seventeenth century; but it was only eighty years ago that the first English translation was published by Fr.John Morris. It is an exact translation, but its English is dated, particularly as it attempted to turn Gerard's Latin into Elizabethan English." Caraman explains that "It was Fr. Martin D"Arcy who, as Provincial of the English Jesuits, first suggested that I retranslate and re-edit the Autobiography." Fr. Caraman also added numerous end notes and a series of Appendices collecting valuable material on Robert Southwell and Henry Garnet. Illustrated with a frontispiece sketch and four other plates. First published in the U.K. as The Diary of a Hunted Priest (Longmans, 1951). Ellsberg. All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets and Witnesses for Our Time.
Price: $150.00