Brocard Sewell

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Michael Seymour Sewell (1912 – 2000), usually now known by his religious name Brocard Sewell, was a British Carmelite monk and literary figure.

He was born in Bangkok, and brought up in Cornwall, England. He was educated at Weymouth College, leaving at 16. He became a Catholic convert in 1931. He was as a young man involved with H. D. C. Pepler in craft printing.

He became a Carmelite friar in 1952. In a subsequent career as editor, publisher, printer and writer, he commemorated and wrote up a number of lesser literary lights: Arthur Machen, Frederick Rolfe, Montague Summers, André Raffalovitch, John Gray, Olive Custance, Henry Williamson. He also wrote on distributist figures and the Eric Gill and Ditchling circle. As noted by Oswald Mosley biographer Stephen Dorril, Sewell was himself a member of the Distributist League and the British Union of Fascists [Black Shirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism (644)]. He engaged during the 1960s in a high-profile controversy, speaking out against the Catholic Church's teachings on contraception.

[edit] Works

  • Arthur Machen: Essays by Adrian Goldstone, C. A. and Anthony Lejeune, Father Brocard Sewell, Maurice Spurway, Wesley D. Sweetser, Henry Williamson... Llandeilo: St. Albert's Press, 1960 editor
  • Corvo, 1860-1960: A Collection of Essays by Various Hands Saint Albert's Press Aylesford 1961 Cecil Woolf and Brocard Sewell (eds.)
  • Two Friends: John Gray and Andre Raffalovich. Aylesford: Saint Albert's Press (1963)
  • New Quests For Corvo (1965) editor with Cecil Woolf
  • Montague Summers: A Memoir (1965) as Joseph Jerome
  • My Dear Time's Waste Aylesford, Kent.: Saint Albert's Press, 1966
  • Footnote to the Nineties: A Memoir of John Gray & André Raffalovich (1968)
  • The Vatican Oracle (1970)
  • Cecil Chesterton (1975)
  • Olive Custance: Her Life and Work.London: The Eighteen Nineties Society. 1975
  • A Check-list of Books, Pamphlets, Broadsheets, Catalogues, Posters etc., printed by H.D.C. Pepler at Saint Dominic's Press, Ditchling, Sussex between the years 1916 and 1936 A.D Ditchling Press, Sussex, 1979
  • Three Private Presses: Saint Dominic's Press, the Press of Edward Walters, Saint Albert's Press Christopher Skelton, 1979
  • Henry Williamson: the Man, the Writings (1980)
  • Like Black Swans: Some People and Themes. London ; Tabb House, 1982
  • In the Dorian Mode: A Life of John Gray, 1866-1934 (1983)
  • Frances Horovitz, Poet: A Symposium. Aylesford Press, 1987
  • Three Essays (1988) Father Vincent McNabb; A Modern Hand-Printer - Edward Walters; Voyage To A Beginning - the Introduction to Colin Wilson's autobiography
  • Cancel all our Vows: Brother Joseph Gardiner and the Servants of Christ the King (1988)
  • GK's Weekly: An Appraisal (1990)
  • Tell Me Strange Things: A Memorial to Montague Summers. Upton: The Aylesford Press, 1991
  • The Habit of a Lifetime: An Autobiography. Padstow, Tabb House, 1992.
  • The Selected Poems of Olive Custance 1995 editor
  • Saint Dominic's Press. A Bibliography 1916-1937. (Lower Marston): Whittington Press,(1995) Michael Taylor and Brocard Sewell.
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