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James Laver
(ca. 1952)
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James
Laver is the author of Nostradamus or the future foretold, a study on Nostradamus and
the Centuries, first published in 1942, revised in 1952 and
further revised in 1973.
The prologue to Nostradamus or the future foretold shows that
shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Laver came in touch
with the Centuries. Fascinated by the correspondences between the
contents of quatrain 09-20 and the flight of the French king Louis XVI
to Varennes, where he got arrested, Laver began to deepen himself in the
enigma of the Centuries. He studied numerous Century-comments
and numerous publications which dealt with occult phenomena. At the end
of his prologue, he wrote that this study made it clear to him that the
human mind was far more complicated than he had been willing to believe
and that he could not dismiss the Centuries, although he refuted
much material, found by other Century-scholars. In the closing
line of his epilogue, he wrote about the inescapable fact that
Nostradamus was a true Prophet.
Laver, art critic, author and
fashion-expert, was born in Liverpool on March 14, 1899. He got educated
at the Liverpool Institute and the New College in Oxford.
Laver was an erudite man and a many-sided author. He wrote biographies,
novels, poems and satires and published on art and fashion. Some of his
books were translated into Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish. In 1921, he won
the Newdigate Prize for English Verse. From 1922 to 1959,
he was Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the Victoria & Albert Museum in
London and was in charge of the theatrical collections.
A number of titles of honour were granted to Laver, such as CBE (Commander
in the Order of the British Empire), Hon. RE (Honourable Member of
the Royal Engineers), FRSA (Fellow of the
Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce,
founded in 1754), and FRSL (Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature, the oldest literary organization in England, founded in 1820).
Laver was
married with the actress Veronica Turleigh. He died in a fire on June 3,
1975, in Lewisham, London.
Publications
by James Laver in the period 1927-1937
The first edition
of Nostradamus or the future foretold contained a list of titles
of some of Laver's publications. In
this article, this list of titles is completed with the years and the
places of issue.
Novels
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Nymph
errant (London,
1932)
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Background
for Venus (London,
1934)
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Panic
among Puritans (London, 1932)
Biographies
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Whistler
(1930)
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Wesley
(London, 1932)
Art
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A
history of British and American etching (London, 1929)
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French
painting and the nineteenth century (Batsford,
1937)
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Stage
designs and costumes by Oliver Messel (London, 1933)
Verse-satires
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A
stitch in time or pride prevents a fall (London,
1927)
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Love's
progress or the education of Araminta (London,
1929)
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Ladies'
mistakes (Bloomsbury, 1933)
Poems
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Macrocosmos
- a poem (London, 1929)
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Winter
wedding. A decoration (London,
1934)
Publications
by James Laver on Nostradamus
Laver-1942 |
Laver-1952 |
Laver-1981
(1973) |
De Meern, the Netherlands, April 19,
2007
T.W.M. van Berkel
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