Jocelyn Brooke Papers

Collection

Identifier: MS-MS-ms017

Staff Only

The Jocelyn Brooke Papers consists of Brooke's manuscripts for an unpublished book, two essays, and a set of page proofs for Marcel Proust: A Biography, Volume 2, by George D. Painter, which Brooke annotated. The typescript carbon manuscript for the as-yet-unpublished book is entitled Furious and Deadly: Experiment in Exorcism.

Dates

Creation: 1964-1965

Creator

Brooke, Jocelyn (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Open

Conditions Governing Use

Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies.

Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University.

If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or spec@wumail.wustl.edu. (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)

Extent

1.00 boxes

0.50 linear feet

Additional Description

Biographical or Historical Information

Jocelyn Brooke (November 30, 1908 – October 29, 1966) was a prominent British author and naturalist born in Kent. He wrote several unusual and semi-autobiographical novels as well as some poetry. His most famous works include the Orchid Trilogy—The Military Orchid (1948), A Mine of Serpents (1949) and The Goose Cathedral (1950), and the Kafkaesque Image of a Drawn Sword (1950).

Educated at Bedales (after escaping twice from a public school) and Worcester College, Oxford, Brooke's childhood revolved mostly around his principal interests of amateur botany and fireworks, in the shadow of the first World War. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps during the next war, and elements of his experiences, and his love of the military life, appear in most of his later works. Though the Orchid Trilogy strays into a typically English vein of humour, the idyllic land of his childhood and his obsession with le paradis perdu often bring in an element of intense melancholy, something developed in paranoia and isolation in The Image of a Drawn Sword.