Lewis Page Mercier

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Lewis Page Mercier
Born 9 Jan 1820
Died 2 Nov 1870
Nationality British
Education BA(oxon)1840 1841, M.A. 1855
Known for Translator of Jules Verne's novels
Religious beliefs Church of England

Reverend Lewis Page Mercier (1820-1875[1]) is known today as the translator, along with Eleanor Elizabeth King, of two of the best known novels of Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas and From the Earth to the Moon, and a Trip Around It.

In 1871, the publishers Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington acquired the English rights to several of Jules Verne's books [2]. For their first work Sampson Low & Co. chose Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas published in November, 1872, with the translator Rev. Lewis Page Mercier, (1820-1875) B.A. Oxon.,1841, M.A. 1855. Born in 09 JAN 1820 (Christening: 07 FEB 1820 Old Church, Saint Pancras, London), Mercier came of French Huguenot stock; his grandfather was pastor of the French Protestant church in Threadneedle Street, London, his father was active in educational activities. He almost certainly spoke French at home as a child, and may have been one of the few native French speakers to translate Verne. The family was located in the London Borough of Hackney, home of the original silk industry of French mercers (= fr. mercier).

In 1837 he entered Trinity College, Oxford, [3] where he was the College Latin Essayist. He received a Third in “Greats” (Greek and Latin) and obtained a post-graduate bursary at University College, Oxford, the “Browne Exhibition”, established by one Browne in 1587. Foregoing an academic but at the time necessarily celibate career, he gave up his exhibition to marry Anna Marie Hovell in 1841. He became a deacon in 1842 and a presbyter in 1845.

His first posting was to Glasgow where he was Assistant Minister of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Chapel, 2nd master of the Glasgow College School, and Chaplain to the Garrison, after which he moved on to be 2nd Master at a new school in Edgbaston near Birmingham (1846) and headmaster (1849). In 1857 he moved back to Hackney becoming headmaster at the St. John’s Foundation School and Assistant Reader at the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital in nearby Brunswick Square. [4] In 1861 we find him living at the school at age 41, head of a family of 9 children (ages 1,2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15), numerous servants and 25 pupils. [5] Relieved of his position by the Governing Board in 1861, he then became Chaplain at the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital, then one of the most important charitable institutions in England.

The Foundling Hospital [6] was the first public charity in England, established in 1739 by a Royal Charter granted by King George II and Queen Caroline. The buildings were erected on 53 acres purchased by Thomas Coram the ship captain who sponsored its establishment. Early benefactors were the painter Hogarth and George Friedrich Handel who played at the opening and conducted the Messiah every year thereafter. Well known artists contributed paintings, and the Foundling Hospital became the first picture gallery in the country. Church services at the chapel with famous preachers, famous musicians, a professional choir and organist attracted large crowds of the most well connected people in London throughout the century. Charles Dickens who lived nearby attended regularly with a reserved pew. The buildings were torn down in 1926 to make way for a fish market which was never built.

In 1865 Lewis Mercier suddenly found it necessary to borrow £250 [7] secured by a bond from Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh (Warwickshire), the wealthiest landowner in England, at the rate of 12% per annum. (Lord Leigh had appointed him “Provincial Grand Chaplain to the Freemasons, Warwickshire in 1852.) By 1870, in ill health and unable to repay his debt when it came due, he was forced in extremis to seek extra funds by translating for Sampson Low, who were in the process of printing a religious book of his.

Mercier offered one great advantage to Sampson Low: speed. A native French speaker, an excellent linguist, fluent in several languages, with the aid of his assistant Eleanor Elizabeth King (1838 — ??) he was able to translate four novels in little over a year in his spare time, enabling Sampson Low to come out with a new Verne book for the Christmas trade in 1872 and 1873. To avoid a conflict of interest with his position as Chaplain, Mercier wrote under the pen names of “Mercier Lewis, M.A., Oxon.” And “Louis Mercier”. Mercier has been pilloried in America for decades for the 20% deletions in the text of his translations, but in view of his desperate financial situation it is more than likely that the deletions were either performed or dictated by his editors at Sampson Low. [8] We shall never know for sure as the offices of Sampson Low in Fleet Street were completely destroyed by the bombing of London in December, 1940. There is also internal evidence to indicate that editors made changes to Mercier’s translation even in press; an even more drastically cut version of 20,000 Leagues (175 pp.) was published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. in the early 1900s.

Mercier also translated The Wreck of the Hansa, (The German Arctic expedition of 1869-70), Sampson Low et al.: 1874, as well as publishing several religious works and instructional materials for teachers of Greek[9] and Latin. He was forced to resign [10] his position at the Foundling Hospital by the Governing Board in early 1873 after troubles arose over his supervision of the schools, and he died on Tuesday November 2nd, 1875 [11], the date his semi-annual payment of £15 to Lord Leigh was due.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Registry of Births, Marriages, and Deaths 1839—, British Records Office, London, also available at www.ancestry.com
  2. ^ E. Marston, After Work , London: William Heineman, 1904
  3. ^ Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886, London: Joseph Foster, 1887-1888
  4. ^ Crockford's Clerical directory : London, 1858—.
  5. ^ U.K. Census, June, 1861, available at www.ancestry.com
  6. ^ R. H. Nicholls and F. A. Wray The History of the Foundling Hospital, London: Oxford University Press, 1935
  7. ^ Correspondence of Lewis Mercier at the Shakespeare Trust, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, UK.
  8. ^ Details of the errors in Lewis' translations and an explanation of how they occurred may be found in Norman Wolcott: How Lewis Mercier and Eleanor King Brought You Jules Verne: Newsletter of the North American Jules Verne Society, Vol. 12, No. 2, Dec. 2005, and in expanded form in a publication of the same title, available through www.lulu.com as published by the Choptank Press, St. Michaels, MD, 2007.. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
  9. ^ Lewis Page Mercier (1863). Google Books - Manual of Greek Prosody. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
  10. ^ Minutes of the Select Committees of the Foundling Hospital, 1864-1886, unpublished, London Metropolitan Archives, London, UK
  11. ^ Death Certificate, British Records Office, London, U.K.