CAUSERIES INITIATIQUES Pour Le Travail en Chambre du Milieu,
Paris: Librairie Maçonnique V. Gloton; 7, rue Cadet. (9e). 1931. First Edition (& 1st printing). Octavo, original pictorial wrappers (paperbound formnat). 192 pp, 19 x 12 cm. Stunning covers with artwork by Lucien Donetti. One of 250 numbered copies of the deluxe edition on Alfa paper, this being copy No. 61, initialed by the author. There is a further personalized inscription by the author on the limitation leaf: " Au F.:. (Frère) J. Meekren, en témoignage de mes sentiments les plus frat.:.(fraternels) , Or.:. (Orient) de Paris, mai 1931" Along with these 250 numbered copies, there were 3 copies on Japanese paper and 30 on Holland. Mild wear to edges, a lovely example. Rare. Item #314607
¶ Edouard E. Plantagenet (pseudonym of Edouard Ignace Engel, 1893-1943). Edouard Engel was born in Brussels on March 11, 1893. He settled in France in 1911 and became a naturalized French citizen in 1928. He was initiated in 1925 into the "L'Effort" Lodge of the Grand Orient and affiliated with the Général Peigné Lodge of the Grand Lodge of France , where he served as Worshipful Master.
Engel is known for a trilogy of works "Initiatory Talks for Work in the Apprentice Lodge" (1929), "Initiatory Talks for Work in the Fellow Craft Chamber" (1929), and "Initiatory Talks for Work in the Middle Chamber" (1931). These are intended as a modernized version of the three volumes published by Oswald Wirth at the beginning of the century. Edouard E. Plantagenet was also the editor of the journal "Les Annales maçonniques ." He was also the director of the international publications "La Paix" and the president of the Professional Union of Newspaper Directors and Publishers.
Plantagenet created the French group of the Universal League of Freemasons, itself founded in 1905 during the 1st World Esperanto Congress. He was a member of the Fraternity-Reconciliation Masonic group, which revived the Goethe Lodge. He was the first Worshipful Master of this Parisian German-speaking lodge of the Grand Lodge of France .
In March 1942, during Nazi-Occupied France, he was the subject of a request for review of his naturalization, which sought to strip him of his French nationality for having been a high-ranking Freemason. This review was rejected in August 1942 with the notation "retained for services rendered to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." However, being Jewish, Plantagenet was deported and died in 1943.
Price (CAD): $350.00