NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Edward Carpenter

Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was an English socialist poet, anthologist, and an early homosexual activist. Image File history File links Carpenter1875. ... Image File history File links Carpenter1875. ... August 29 is the 241st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (242nd in leap years), with 124 days remaining. ... Jan. ... June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 186 days remaining. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() â€“ on the European continent() â€“ in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan 967 Area... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ...

Early life

Born in Hove, near Brighton, Carpenter was educated like all his brothers at Brighton College where his father was a governor. He then attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge and while there he displayed great academic ability, coming to an acute awareness in these years of his homosexuality. While at Trinity Hall he had a close friendship with Andrew Beck (later Master of Trinity Hall) which had 'a touch of romance'. Beck eventually ended their relationship and denied the attachment, causing Carpenter great emotional heart-ache. It is clear that in the early part of his life Carpenter's sexuality caused him a great deal of distress, causing him to resort to visiting male prostitutes in Paris. After University he joined the Church of England as a curate, "as a convention rather than out of deep conviction".^[1] He was heavily influenced by the minister at his church,Frederick Maurice, who was the leader of the Christian Socialist movement. Floral Clock, Palmeira Square Hove promenade facing towards Brighton Hove is a town on the south coast of England immediately to the west of its twin, Brighton. ... Brighton is located on the south coast of England, and together with its immediate neighbour Hove forms the city of Brighton and Hove. ... Brighton College is an independent co-educational in Brighton, United Kingdom. ... Full name College of Scholars of the Holy Trinity of Norwich Motto - Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names - Established 1350 Sister College(s) University College All Souls College Master Prof. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... From the Latin curatus (compare Curator), a curate is a person who is invested with the care, or cure (cura), of souls of a parish. ... John Frederick Denison Maurice (August 29, 1805 - April 1, 1872) was an English theologian. ... This article is about politics that is a conjunction of Christianity and Socialism. ...

In the following years he experienced an increasing sense of dissatisfaction with his life in the church and university and became weary of what he saw as the hypocrisy of Victorian society. He found great solace in reading poetry, later remarking that his discovery of the work of the homosexual and the political radical Walt Whitman caused "a profound change" in him, (My Days and Dreams p. 64). Reading Whitman caused Carpenter to reject a life spent in a comfortable clerical post and instead he wished to dedicate himself to life helping the working-class gain the right to education. Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819â€“March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ...

Carpenter left the church in 1874 and became a lecturer in astronomy and music, moving to Leeds as part of an early outreach programme. He hoped to lecture to the working classes, but found that his lectures were attended by middle class people, many of whom showed little active interest in the subjects he taught. Disillusioned, he moved to Chesterfield, but finding the town dull, after a year he based himself in Sheffield. Here he finally came into contact with manual workers, and he began to write poetry. Despite his obvious affinity for labourers, he was invited to become a tutor to the future George V. He politely rejected the post. Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Lecturer is a term of academic rank. ... A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant Astronomy is the science of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ... Leeds is a major city in West Yorkshire, England. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... Chesterfield, see Chesterfield (disambiguation) Chesterfield is a historic market town and local government district in Derbyshire, a county in England. ... Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. ... George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 - 20 January 1936) was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, as a result of his creating it from the British branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. ...

In Sheffield, Carpenter became increasingly radical. Influenced by a disciple of Engels, Henry Hyndman, he joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1883 and attempted to form a branch in the city. The group instead chose to remain independent, and became the Sheffield Socialist Society. While in the city he worked on a number of projects including highlighting the poor conditions of industrial workers. In May 1889, Carpenter wrote a piece in Sheffield Independent calling Sheffield the laughingstock of the civilized world and said that the giant thick cloud of smog rising out of Sheffield was like the smoke arising from Judgment Day, and that it was the altar on which the lives of many thousands would be sacrificed. He said that 100,000 adults and children were struggling to find sunlight and air, living miserable lives, unable to breathe and dying of related illnesses. Also while in Sheffield he wrote 'England Arise!, a socialist marching song to promote left-wing politics, rivalling Connell's 'Red Flag' in the British Labour Movement. In 1884, he left the SDF with William Morris to join the Socialist League. This move was in part promoted by the more conventional political aspirations the SDF, a feeling made obvious by Hyndman, who in 1881 remarked, "I do not want the movement to be a depository of old cranks, humanitarians, vegetarians, anti-vivisectionists, and anti-vaccinationists, arty-crafties and all the rest of them." Henry Mayers Hyndman (March 7, 1842 - November 20, 1921) was a British writer and politician, and the founder of the Social Democratic Federation. ... This article is about the British political party. ... 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Sheffield Socialist Society was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in Sheffield, England. ... Year 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... William Morris, socialist and innovator in the Arts and Crafts movement William Morris (March 24, 1834 â€“ October 3, 1896) was an English artist, writer, socialist and activist. ... The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. ...

Increasingly attracted by a life close to nature Carpenter moved in with Albert Fearnehough a tenant farmer and his family in Bradway. It was then that Carpenter began to develop the crux of his Socialist politics, influenced by John Ruskin, he envisioned a future that took the form of primitive communism, which flatly rejected the industrialism of the Victorian age. In this utopian community he envisaged ‘mutual help and combination will...become spontaneous and instinctive’. When his father Charles Carpenter died in 1882, he left his son a considerable fortune This enabled Carpenter to quit his lectureship to start a simpler life of market gardening in Millthorpe, Derbyshire. By this time he had also come to fully acknowledge his homosexuality. During 1886 he had a brief relationship with George Hukin, who was employed in the Sheffield razor trade; despite Hukin's subsequent marriage, which caused a rift between them, the men ultimately formed a close and lifelong friendship. Dore and Totley wardâ€”which includes the districts of Bradway , Dore, Totley, and Whirlowâ€”is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. ... In agriculture, market gardening is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. ... Millthorpe is a town of around 600, located between Orange and Blayney in New South Wales, Australia. ... Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. ...

In the 1880s Carpenter developed an intellectual passion for Hindu mysticism and Indian philosophy. During this period, Carpenter received a pair of sandals from a friend in India. "I soon found the joy of wearing them," Carpenter wrote. "And after a little time I set about making them." This was the first successful introduction of sandals to Britain. In 1890 he travelled to Ceylon and India to spend time with the Hindu teacher called Gnani, who he describes his work "Adam's Peak to Elephanta". The experience had a profound effect on his social and political thought. Carpenter began to believe that Socialism should not only concern itself with man's outward economic conditions, but also affect a profound change in human consciousness. In this new stage of society Carpenter argued that mankind would return to a primordial state of simple joy: "The meaning of the old religions will come back to him. On the high tops once more gathering he will celebrate with naked dances the glory of the human form and the great processions of the stars, or greet the bright horn of the young moon.” Edward Carpenter (1889), Civilisation: its cause and cure. This brand of "Mystical socialism" inspired him to begin a number of campaigns against air pollution, promoting vegetarianism and opposing vivisection. Sandal (or Sandals) may refer to: Sandal (footwear) are an open type of footwear. ...

On his return from India in 1891, he met George Merrill, a working class man also from Sheffield, and the two men struck up a strong relationship, eventually moving in to together as lovers in 1898. Merrill had been raised in the slums of Sheffield and had no formal education. Two men of different classes living together as a couple was almost unheard of in England in the 1890s, a fact made all the more extraordinary by the hysteria about homosexuality generated by the Oscar Wilde trial of 1895 and the Criminal Law Amendment Bill passed a decade earlier "outlawing all forms of male homosexual contact". But their relationship endured and they remained partners for the rest of their lives. The love of the two men, not only defied Victorian sexual mores but also the highly stratified British class system. Their partnership in many ways reflected Carpenter's cherished conviction that homosexual love had the power to subvert class boundaries. It was his belief that at sometime in the future homosexual people would be the cause of radical social change in the social conditions of man. Carpenter remarks in his work "The Intermediate Sex", George Merrill was the lifetime companion of English poet and gay activist Edward Carpenter. ...

"Eros is a great leveller. Perhaps the true Democracy rests, more firmly than anywhere else, on a sentiment which easily passes the bounds of class and caste, and unites in the closest affection the most estranged ranks of society. It is noticeable how often Uranians of good position and breeding are drawn to rougher types, as of manual workers, and frequently very permanent alliances grow up in this way, which although not publicly acknowledged have a decided influence on social institutions, customs and political tendencies". p.114-115

(Note: The term "Uranian", referring to a passage from Plato's Symposium, was often used at the time to describe someone who would be termed "homoseual" nowadays.) From John Addington Symonds 1891 book A Problem in Modern Ethics. ...

Despite their unorthodox living arrangement, Carpenter and Merrill managed to escape scandal and arrest in the hostile social climate due to seclusion afforded to them by Milthorpe and Carpenter's notable literary diplomacy. In his writings Carpenter was keen to down-play the carnal aspects of homosexual affection, emphazising the emotional depth of such relationships. To bolster such a portrayal Carpenter drew a great deal of inspiration from Plato's idealised view of same-sex love, popular with Victorian gay men, who used Classical allusions to "Greek Love" as a coded language to discuss their sexual orientation. There remoteness from society allowed Carpenter to indulge in nudism which he believed was a symbol of a life at one with nature. Carpenter also began to cultivate a philosophy which argued for a radical simplification of life, focusing on the need for the open air, rational dress and a healthy diet based on "fruits, nuts, tubers, grains, eggs, etc... and milk in its various forms’.

It is also perhaps due to this seclusion that allowed Milthorpe to become a focal-point for socialists, humanitarians, intellectuals and writers, from Britain and abroad. Carpenter included among his friends the scholar, author, naturalist, and founder of the Humanitarian League, Henry S. Salt, and his wife, Catherine; the critic, essayist and sexologist, Havelock Ellis, and his wife, Edith; actor and producer Ben Iden Payne; Labour activists, John Bruce and Katharine Glasier; writer and scholar, John Addington Symonds and the writer and feminist, Olive Schreiner. E. M. Forster was also close friends with the couple, who on a visit to Milthorpe in 1912 was inspired to write his homosexual novel "Maurice". He records in his diary that, Merrill, Henry Havelock Ellis (February 2, 1859 - July 8, 1939), known as Havelock Ellis, was a British doctor, sexual psychologist and social reformer. ... Edward Morgan Forster, OM, (January 1, 1879 â€“ June 7, 1970) was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. ...

"...touched my backside - gently and just above the buttocks. I believe he touched most people's. The sensation was unusual and I still remember it, as I remember the position of a long vanished tooth. He made a profound impression on me and touched a creative spring".

It can clearly be seen that the relationship between Carpenter and Merrill was the template for the relationship between Maurice and Alec, the gamekeeper in Forster's novel.Carpenter was also a significant influence on the author D. H. Lawrence, whose Lady Chatterley's Lover can be seen as a heterosexualised Maurice. Carpenter was a prolific letter writer and corresponded with a number of homosexual men on questions relating to "homogenic type". One such man was Siegfried Sassoon, who came across Carpenter's work at Cambridge, which had a profound on his attiude towards his own sexuality, giving him both, answers and personal peace of mind. D.H. Lawrence, age 21 (1906) David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was an important and controversial English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. ... Lady Chatterleys Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence written in 1928. ...

The 1890s saw Carpenter produce his finest political writing in a concerted effort to campaign against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. He strongly believed that homosexuality was a natural orientation for people of a third sex. His 1908 book on the subject, The Intermediate Sex, would become a foundational text of the LGBT movements of the 20th century. It can only speculated why Carpenter felt compelled to embark on such an unpopular and even dangerous subject in such hostile times, but one theory is that Carpenter's moral courage was ignited by the death of the homosexual scholar and middle-class radical John Addington Symonds. In the 1880s Symonds had composed a number of works in defence of homosexuality, which were distributed among a small group of people, including Carpenter. On Symonds' death in 1893, Carpenter perhaps saw the political mantle passing to him and within a couple of years made his first attempt to write on the subject. While engaged in this campaign Carpenter developed a keen interest in progressive education, especially providing information to young people on the topic of sexual eduction, and was a good friend of John Haden Badley, the social reformer and educationalist and would regularly visit Bedales School when his nephew Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter was a student there. Sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individuals sexuality, normally conceived of as falling into several significant categories based around the sex or gender that the individual finds attractive. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... Third gender was used from the late 19th century to describe people who did not fit into the then existing gender categories: female genitalia = female identity = female behavior = desire male partner male genitalia = male identity = male behavior = desires female partner Today this scheme is also known as binary gender system... LGBT movements is a collective term for a number of social movements that share related goals of social acceptance of homosexuality and/or gender variance. ... John Haden Badley, at the age of 56, from the painting by Fred Yates John Haden Badley (February 21, 1865 â€“ March 6, 1967), author, educator, and founder of Bedales School, which claims to have become the first coeducational public boarding school in England in 1893. ... Bedales School is a public school with a progressive ethos located in the village of Steep, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England. ... Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter (VC, Croix de Guerre and Legion dHonneur (France)) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. ...

Sexual education for Carpenter also meant forwarding a clear analysis of the ways in which sex and gender were used to oppress women, contained in Carpenter's radical work "Love's Coming-of-Age". In it he argued that a just and equal society must promote the sexual and economic freedom of women. The main crux of his analysis centred on the negative affects of the institution of marriage. He regarded marriage in England as both enforced celibacy and a form of prostitution. He did not believe women would truly be free until a socialist society was established. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, however, this led him to conclude that all oppressed workers should support women's emancipation, rather than to subordinate women's rights to male worker's rights. He remarked

"...there is no solution except the freedom of woman-which means, of course, the freedom of the masses of the people, men and women, and the ceasing altogether of economic slavery. There is no solution which will not include the redemption of the terms free women and free love to their true and rightful significance. Let every woman whose heart bleeds for the sufferings of her sex, hasten to declare herself and to constitute herself, as far as she possibly can, a free woman"

Political Activism in His Later Life

The last twenty years of Carpenter's life were filled with a continued political radicalism, marked by his persistent involvement in progressive issues, including environmental protection, animal rights, sexual freedom, the Women's movement and vegetarianism. He wrote on the awfulness of the capitalist system, against the landed aristocracy and for his vision of socialism – a new era of democracy, comradeship, cooperation and sexual freedom. While Carpenter never affilitated with one single political group, becoming involved in supporting Fred Charles of the Walsall Anarchists in 1892, he was eager to involve himself with the wider Socialist movement. The following year he became a founder member of the Independent Labour Party with George Bernard Shaw among others. While Carpenter was seen as true radical in his own life-time, many of his beliefs, especially his views on sexuality, did not endear him to many on the Left. In The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), George Orwell famously ridicules "every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal wearer [and] sex maniac" in the Socialist movement, referring of course to Carpenter. He remained unperturbed and continued to advocate Socialist causes. Suffrage parade in New York City on May 6, 1912 The Feminist movement (also known as the Womens Movement and Womens Liberation) campaigns on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, discrimination and sexual violence. ... The Walsall Anarchists were a group of anarchists arrested on explosive charges in Walsall in 1892. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a former political party in the United Kingdom. ... George Bernard Shaw (born 26 July 1856, Dublin, Ireland died November 2, 1950, Hertfordshire, England) was an Irish writer. ... The Road to Wigan Pier was written by George Orwell and published in 1937. ... Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] â€“ 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. ... Bredene nude beach in Belgium. ... Modern multi-colored Sandalette Yoga sandals In some parts of the United States, this type of sandal is referred to in slang as the mandal in that it is worn primarily by men. ...

He continued to work in the early part of the 20th century composing works on the "Homogenic question", with the publication of his groundbreaking 1908 anthology of poems, Iolaus - anthology of friendship was a huge underground success, leading to a more advanced knowledge of homoerotic culture. The New York 1917 edition is now available as a free online e-book. In April 1914 Carpenter and his friend Laurence Houseman founded the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology. Some of the topics addressed in lecture and publication by the society included: the promotion of the scientific study of sex and a more rational attitude towards sexual conduct; problems and questions connected with sexual psychology (from medical, juridical, and sociological aspects), birth control, abortion, sterilization, veneral diseases, and all aspects of prostitution. It was also at this time that he also lectured to the Independent Labour Party, and to the Fellowship of the New Life, from which the Fabian Society eventually grew. ANThology is the first major label album by Alien Ant Farm. ... In Greek mythology, Iolaus (Greek: Î„Î™ÏŒÎ»Î±Î¿Ï‚) was a son of Iphicles and thus a nephew of Heracles. ... In the late twentieth century, male homoeroticism flourished in the visual arts. ...

Carpenter's interests were not solely confined to what his detractors may have termed fringed political subjects, but also the pressing international issues of the time. His left-wing pacifism led him to become a vocal opponent of first the Second Boer War and then the First World War. In 1919 he published The Healing of Nations and the Hidden Sources of Their Strife, where he argued passionately that the source of war and discontent in western society was class-monopoly and social inequality. He termed this social injustice "class-disease,” where each class acts only in its own interests. To Carpenter's mind a radical social and economic restructuring needed to take place in order to end social fragmentation. He remarked in his later years that: Combatants British Empire Orange Free State South African Republic Commanders Sir Redvers Buller Lord Kitchener Lord Roberts Paul Kruger Louis Botha Koos de la Rey Martinus Steyn Christiaan de Wet Casualties 5000 - 6000 Battlefield casualties, 15,000 disease related. ... â€œThe Great War â€ redirects here. ...

"I can see only one ultimate way out of the morass in which we are engulfed. The present commercial system will have to go, and there will have to be a return to the much simpler systems of co-operation be-longing to a bygone age...To that condition, or something very like it, I am convinced we shall have to return if society is to survive. I say this after a long and close observation of life in many phases.....This is what the miners, I think, in a dim, subconscious way, have already perceived, for they retain in their minds much of the primitive mentality of pre-civilization days".

Carpenter's later years were deeply characterised not only by his continued writings on pacifism, but also the trade-union movement, becoming a hero to the first generation of Labour politicians. During the short-lived Labour government in 1924, Carpenter's 80th birthday was marked by a commemorative greeting signed by every member of the Cabinet. George Merrill, died suddenly in January 1928 leaving Carpenter devastated. Carpenter's state of mind is described vividly by the noted political activist G Lowes Dickinson,

"Edward's grief when that occurred was overwhelming. I remember him walking on my arm to the cemetery at Guildford where they had buried George a few days before, and where he himself was to lie a year or so later. It was a day of pouring rain, and we stood beside the grave, while Carpenter ejaculated again and again, 'They have put him away in the cold ground'."

Death and Influence

In May 1928 Carpenter suffered a paralytic stroke rendering him almost helpless. He lived another 13 months before he died on a perfect summer afternoon, Friday June 28, 1929. On December 30, 1910 Carpenter had written: June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 186 days remaining. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...

Unfortunately the existence of his request was not discovered until several days after his burial. The closing words form the epitaph engraved on his tombstone: Tombstone most commonly means a headstone marking the grave of a deceased person. ...

He was interred in Mount Cemetery at Guildford in Surrey. At the time of his death, Carpenter was largely forgotten, but his books were stocked in many libraries' "restricted to adults" sections and proved inspirational to homosexual people searching for solace. One such man was the homosexual rights activist and Communist Harry Hay. He was so inspired by the work of Carpenter and his prophecy of the coming together of homosexuals to fight for their rights that he decided to put the words into action by founding the Mattachine Society which started advancing homosexual rights in America. In Britain, Carpenter’s words were frequently quoted by homosexual rights activists. Mount Cemetery is a cemetery in Guildford, Surrey, England. ... Not to be confused with Guilford. ... Not to be confused with Surry. ...

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