Edward Carpenter
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Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was a socialist poet, anthologist, and an early homosexual activist.
Born in Brighton, Carpenter attended Trinity College, Cambridge before joining the church as a curate. He was heavily influenced by the minister at his church, the leader of the Christian Socialist movement. Carpenter left the church in 1874 and became a lecturer in astronomy. During this period, he moved to Sheffield to live fairly openly in a same sex relationship with George Merrill. A visit by E.M. Forster to the couple inspired Forster's novel Maurice. Carpenter was also a significant influence on the author D.H. Lawrence.
In 1883, Carpenter joined the Social Democratic Federation, and in 1885 he left to join the Socialist League. After dabbling in the Labour Church movement, and achieving growing acclaim for his Whitman-esque poetry, he became a founder member of the Independent Labour Party in 1893. His pacifism led him to become a vocal opponent of first the Boer War and then the First World War.
In the 1890s, Carpenter began to campaign against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. He strongly believed that sexuality was innate. In 1908, he wrote Intermediate Sex, an important though at the time highly controversial book on the subject.
His groundbreaking 1908 anthology of poems, Iolaus - anthology of friendship was a huge underground success, leading to a more advanced knowledge of homoerotic culture. It went to a second British edition in 1906 and a third edition in 1927. The New York 1917 edition is now available as a free online e-book (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/iolaus.html).
Carpenter was an infuence on photographer Ansel Adams. In his early manhood Adams was... "devoted to the comparative-religious poetry of Edward Carpenter, who had close links with the Theosophical community of Halcyon, in Southern California" (Anne Hammond, Ansel Adams: Equivalent as Expression.).
Works
- Towards Democracy (1883)
- England's Ideal (1887)
- Civilization: Its Cause and Cure (1889)
- Love's Coming of Age (1896)
- Days with Walt Whitman (1906)
- Iolaus - anthology of friendship (1908) (as editor)
- My Days and Dreams (1916) (his autobiography)
External link
- Spartacus on Edward Carpenter (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUcarpenter.htm)
- A 12-page Tribute to Edward Carpenter (http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~tmd/ec.htm)
- Edward Carpenter texts on Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c#a657)