Login
Login

Gertrude Rachel Levy

{{Short description|British writer and archaeologist (1883–1966)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox writer

| embed =

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Gertrude Rachel Levy

| honorific_suffix =

| image = Gertrude Rachel Levy, circa 1900.jpg

| image_size =

| image_upright =

| alt = Photograph of Gertrude Rachel Levy, former librarian, classical scholar and archaeologist, circa 1900

| caption = Photograph of Gertrude Rachel Levy, former librarian, classical scholar and archaeologist, circa 1900

| pseudonym = G. Rachel Levy

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 5 November 18831939 England and Wales Register

| birth_place = Aliwal North, Cape Colony1901, 1911 England Census

| death_date = 10 October 1966 (aged 82){{cite news |title=Miss Rachel Levy |work=The Times |page=14 |date= 20 October 1966}}England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995

| death_place = Hendon, London, England

| occupation = writer, archaeologist

| language = English

| residence =

| nationality =

| citizenship =

| education =

| alma_mater =

| period =

| genre =

| subject =

| awards = Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of London, 1947

}}

Gertrude Rachel Levy {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA}} (5 November 1883 – 10 October 1966) was a British author and cultural historian writing about comparative mythology, matriarchy, epic poetry and archaeology. She published many of her works under the name "G. Rachel Levy".{{citation|title=Who's who in Art, Volume 7|editor-first=Bernard|editor-last=Dolman|publisher=Art Trade Press, Limited|year=1954|page=427|quote= LEVY, Gertrude Rachel, M.A. (1924), F.S.A. (1947); Dept. of Antiquities, Palestine (1926-28); University of Chicago's Expeditions to Iraq (artist to expeditions) (1930-36); ... Address: 40 Rotherwick Rd., N.W.11. Club: University Women's Club. Signs work: "G. Rachel Levy."}}

Early life and education

Levy was born in Aliwal North, Cape Colony, to Jewish parents Benjamin Levy, a German emigrant, and his wife, Florence Beaver, from Manchester.1891 England Census Her father was a bead and glass merchant born in Posen.UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870–1916 Her maternal grandfather, Louis Beaver, emigrated from Prussia and married Staffordshire-born Rachel Mayer. The family moved to England when she was young and she grew up in Kensington.1851 England Census; 1871 England Census

Levy earned an M.A. in Classics in 1924 from the University of London,{{cite book |title=Calendar |date=1925 |publisher=University of London |page=513 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8gQcAQAAIAAJ&q=Gertrude+Rachel+Levy+1924+m.a. |access-date=30 December 2019 |language=en}} and worked from 1926 to 1928 with the Department of Antiquities in Mandatory Palestine.

Career

From 1930 to 1936, Levy was associated with an expedition to Iraq, sponsored by the University of Chicago. Later in life she lived in London, where from 1939 to 1949 she was the librarian of the Joint Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies.[http://joliheroics.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/former-librarian-gertrude-rachel-levy.html Joint Library of the Hellenic & Roman Societies/Institute of Classical Studies Library, blogpost 14 July 2017, Former Librarian: Gertrude Rachel Levy]

The Society of Antiquaries of London elected her as a Fellow in 1947.{{cite journal|title=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries |journal=The Antiquaries Journal |year=1947 |volume=27 |issue=3–4 |pages=209–215 |doi=10.1017/S0003581500016978|s2cid=246048173 }}

As did Alexander Marshack, but earlier, Levy made an observation to the effect that in the earliest known representations of humans and animals together, the humans are shown without weapons.{{cite book|last=Govaerts|first=Robert|title=Cosmic Prayer and Guided Transformation: Key Elements of the Emergent Christian Cosmology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0hgBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA96|access-date=8 May 2018|date=2012-08-29|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=9781630875909|page=96}} To the theory of hero archetypes, she contributed in The Sword from the Rock a three-phase evolutionary pattern, considered neglected by Brown and Fishwick: creation narratives, then quest pattern, then fraternal conflict.{{cite book|last1=Browne|first1=Ray Broadus|last2=Fishwick|first2=Marshall William|title=The Hero in Transition|url=https://archive.org/details/herointransition00brow|url-access=registration|access-date=8 May 2018|year=1983|publisher=Popular Press|isbn=9780879722388|page=[https://archive.org/details/herointransition00brow/page/53 53]}} Theodore Ziolkowski states that Levy included much of ancient epic in the works that can be traced back to ritual.{{cite book|last=Ziolkowski|first=Theodore|title=Gilgamesh among Us: Modern Encounters with the Ancient Epic|url=https://archive.org/details/gilgameshamongus00ziol|url-access=registration|access-date=8 May 2018|date=2011-11-18|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801463426|page=[https://archive.org/details/gilgameshamongus00ziol/page/169 169]}} Eleazar M. MeletinskyThe Poetics of Myth, English translation p. 74 writes

[...] the monumental epics of agrarian civilizations undoubtedly use models linked to seasonal rites [...] On this point, Levy's work is interesting, despite its exaggerations, and goes beyond Murray's pioneering efforts.

Levy was an influence on Northrop Frye, as he himself acknowledged, and references to her work are common in his "Third Book" and "Late" notebooks.{{cite book|last=Frye|first=Northrop|title=Northrop Frye's Notebooks on Romance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcAhaEQ0J48C&pg=PA461|access-date=8 May 2018|year=2004|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9780802039477|pages=461 note 29}}

Works

{{library resources box|by=yes|viaf=98004005|lccn=Levy, G. Rachel (Gertrude Rachel), 1883-1966 }}

  • The Gate of Horn: A Study of the Religious Concepts of the Stone Age, and Their Influence upon European Thought (1948; republished 1963, Faber & Faber, {{ISBN|978-0571056606}})Reviews of The Gate of Horn:
  • {{cite journal|last=Renard |first=Marcel |journal=Latomus |title=Review |year=1949 |pages=88–89| volume=8 |jstor=41516737}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Myres |first=John L. |title=Review |year=1949 |journal=Man |volume=49 |pages=21–22 |jstor=2792536|doi=10.2307/2792536 }}
  • {{cite journal|last=Wheelwright |first=Philip |title=Review: If the Lost Word Be Lost... |journal=The Sewanee Review |year=1951 |pages=348–362 |volume=59 |jstor=27538080}}
  • {{cite journal|last=White |first=Victor |title=Review |journal=Blackfriars |volume=30 |issue=349 |year=1949 |pages=179–181 |jstor=43812748|doi=10.1111/j.1741-2005.1949.tb00413.x }}
  • {{cite journal|last=Smith|first=Sidney|title=Review|journal=Nature|volume=164|pages=333–334|date=27 August 1949|doi=10.1038/164333a0|s2cid=4073391}}
  • {{cite journal|journal=The Antiquaries Journal|volume=29|issue=3–4|date=October 1949|page=213|title=Review|first=D. A. E.|last=Garrod|doi=10.1017/S0003581500017339|s2cid=161295420 }}
  • {{cite journal|author=Raglan|journal=Folklore|volume=60|issue=3|date=September 1949|page=356|jstor=1256659|title=Review|doi=10.1080/0015587X.1949.9717922}}
  • {{cite journal|first=W.|last=den Boer|journal=Mnemosyne|series=Fourth Series|volume=2|issue=3|year=1949|pages=259–262|jstor=4427191|title=Review}}
  • {{cite journal|first=John|last=Layard|journal=Hibbert Journal|volume=47|page=200|year=1948|title=Review|url=https://philpapers.org/rec/LAYGRL}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Dain|first=Alphonse|journal=Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé|year=1948|volume=6|pages=130–131|title=Review|url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/bude_0004-5527_1948_num_1_6_4878_t1_0130_0000_3}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Picard|first=Charles|journal=Journal des Savants|year=1950|volume=2|pages=87–90|title=Review|url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/jds_0021-8103_1950_num_2_1_3121_t1_0087_0000_3}}

  • The Sword from the Rock: An Investigation into the Origins of Epic Literature and the Development of the Hero (1953)Reviews of The Sword from the Rock:
  • {{cite journal|last=Norwood |first=Frances |journal=Classical Philology |year=1955 |pages=51–53 |volume=50 |jstor=266124 |title=Review|doi=10.1086/363863 }}
  • {{cite journal|first=W. F. J.|last=Knight|journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies|volume=77|issue=Part 2|year=1957|pages=318–319|title=Review|doi=10.2307/629380|jstor=629380|s2cid=162496648 }}
  • {{cite journal|first=H. J.|last=Rose|journal=Man|volume=53|date=August 1953|pages=124–125|publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|jstor=2795642|title=Review}}
  • {{cite journal|first=M. H. A. L. H.|last=van der Valk|journal=Mnemosyne|series=Fourth Series|volume=9|issue=2|year=1956|pages=160–161|jstor=4427832|title=Review}}
  • {{cite journal|first=R. D.|last=Jameson|journal=Western Folklore|volume=16|issue=3|date=July 1957|pages=223–225|doi=10.2307/1497659|title=Review|jstor=1497659}}
  • {{cite journal|first=Louis|last=Le Breton|journal=Syria|volume=32|issue=1–2|year=1955|pages=131–134|jstor=4196897|title=Review}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Eissfeldt|first=O.|journal=Orientalistische Literaturzeitung|volume=52|date=January 1, 1957|page=108|title=Review|id={{ProQuest|1299183958}}}}
  • {{cite journal|journal=The Antiquaries Journal|volume=34|issue=1–2|date=January 1954|page=86|title=Review|first=R. D.|last=Barnett|doi=10.1017/S0003581500073315|s2cid=162494769 }}
  • {{cite journal|journal=Antiquity|volume=27|issue=108|date=December 1953|pages=248–249|title=Review|first=John L.|last=Myres|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00025138|s2cid=163679410 }}
  • {{cite journal|first=Adam|last=Falkenstein|journal=Gnomon|volume=26|issue=6|year=1954|pages=424–426|jstor=27680984|title=Review}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Bérard|first=Jean|journal=Revue des Études Anciennes|year=1954|volume=56|issue=1–2|pages=167–168|title=Review|url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1954_num_56_1_3506_t1_0167_0000_2}}

  • The Violet Crown: An Athenian Autobiography (1954)Review of The Violet Crown:
  • {{cite journal|first=M. E.|last=White|journal=Phoenix|volume=10|issue=2|date=Summer 1956|pages=91–92|doi=10.2307/1086449|title=Review|jstor=1086449}}

  • Plato in Sicily (1956)Reviews of Plato in Sicily:
  • {{cite journal|last=Kerferd |first=G. B. |year=1957 |volume=7 |journal=The Classical Review |pages=256–257 |doi=10.1017/S0009840X00177327|jstor= 702022 |title=Review|s2cid=170201545 }}
  • {{cite journal|author=I. D.|journal=Il Politico|volume=22|issue=1|date=May 1957|page=232|jstor=43204545|title=Review}}

  • The Phoenix' Nest: A Study in Religious Transformations (1961)Review of The Phoenix' Nest:
  • {{cite journal|first=Massimo|last=Scaligero|journal=East and West|volume=14|issue=1–2|date=March–June 1963|pages=118–119|jstor=29754740|title=Review}}

Levy also edited The Myths of Plato (1905) by John Alexander Stewart for a 1960 edition, with revisions, translation of Greek text, and an introduction.{{cite book|last=Wynne-Tyson|first=Jon|title=Finding the Words: A Publishing Life|year=2004|publisher=Michael Russell|isbn=9780859552875|page=57}}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/db38d7cc759247eca8ed1a96a72ebe19 The Dying God and the Beginnings of Epic Literature, BBC Third Programme, 7 May 1952 18.45]
  • [https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20020616/local/missing-archaeological-artefacts-linking-malta-to-ancient-world.173219 Missing archaeological artefacts linking Malta to ancient world, Times of Malta, June 16, 2002 by Natalino Fenech], discusses theories of Levy and Henri Frankfort on the culture of ancient Malta
  • [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/Camelot/intrvws/heath.htm Interview comments] from John Heath-Stubbs

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Gertrude Rachel}}

Category:1883 births

Category:1966 deaths

Category:British women writers

Category:British non-fiction writers

Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Category:British people in Mandatory Palestine

Category:British expatriates in Iraq

Category:British Jews

Category:British people of German-Jewish descent

Category:Alumni of the University of London

Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers

Category:Cape Colony emigrants to the United Kingdom