Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Annie Besant
-
Standard Name: Besant, Annie
Birth Name: Annie Wood
Married Name: Annie Besant
Pseudonym: Ajax
Used Form: the wife of a beneficed clergyman
AB
is known primarily for two streams of non-fiction writing, one concerning birth control and the other the Theosophist movement. However, this omits much of the remarkable output whose topics ranged from women's rights and religion to politics and science; only a small selection from over one hundred pamphlets, lectures, and essays can be discussed here.
Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press.
She often pursued various topics simultaneously. For example, during 1878 and 1879 while she was trying to regain custody of her children, she was also organising her writings on the French Revolution; translating a book from French; keeping up with her weekly journalism; producing pamphlets on atheism, republicanism, India and Ireland; sitting on committees; and, of course, continuing to lecture.
Dinnage, Rosemary. Annie Besant. Penguin.
48-9
As well as such often controversial writings, AB
published short fiction.
On 23 April 1892 IOF
contributed an article entitled Women and the Labour Party to a special series for the Leeds Times on Social and Political Questions by Representative English Women. Other notable contributors...
Cultural formation
Charlotte Despard
She converted to Catholicism
less than a year after her husband's death, which made her a co-religionist of those she now set out to help.
Linklater, Andro. An Unhusbanded Life. Hutchinson.
63
Around 1909, after attending a series of lectures by...
Occupation
Clara Codd
In 1906 CC
became the first National Lecturer for the English Section of the Theosophical Society
.
The International Theosophical Year Book: 1938. The Theosophical Publishing House.
173
She had never lectured before and was nervous about her new title. However, she felt she must...
Occupation
Clara Codd
When CC
returned to England, she found Annie Besant
had arranged for a wealthy American to pay her salary as a lecturer. These wages enabled her to travel throughout England lecturing for the Theosophical Society
Textual Production
Frances Power Cobbe
In 1871 her edited collection Alone to the Alone, Prayers For Theists appeared.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Her writings were sometimes used in Unitarian services, such as those conducted by Charles Voysey
at St George's Hall, Langham Place...
Textual Production
Frances Power Cobbe
In 1877 FPC
published two papers arguing for life after death: The Peak in Darien: The Riddle of Death in New Quarterly Magazine and Magnanimous Atheism, her final essay for the Theological Review....
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Bland, Lucy. Banishing the Beast: Feminism, Sex and Morality. Tauris Parke.
6
Publishing
Emma Frances Brooke
EFB
published a double essay in Annie Besant
's Our Corner entitled Women and their Sphere under her psuendonym, E. Fairfax Byrrne.
Daniels, Kay. “Emma Brooke: Fabian, feminist and writer”. Women’s History Review, Vol.
12
, No. 2, pp. 153-68.
160
Friends, Associates
Emma Frances Brooke
EFB
's involvement with the socialist and feminist movements of the day brought her into close contact with several notable activists and revolutionaries. Through the Fabian Society
, she interacted with Beatrice
and Sidney Webb
Family and Intimate relationships
Muriel Box
MB
's mother was christened Caroline Beatrice (Doney) but known as Bertie.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Box, Muriel. Odd Woman Out. Leslie Frewin.
14, 16
She was a woman of passion, of deep-rooted prejudices, capable of violent outbursts of temper when her will was crossed. She...
politics
Clementina Black
Several critics have linked CB
's efforts with the League to the match-girls' strike of July 1888 led by Annie Besant
. Critic Olive Banks
suggests that a speech by CB
to the Fabian Society
Family and Intimate relationships
Sir Walter Besant
Annie Besant
became his sister-in-law through her marriage to his brother Frank
in 1867.
Textual Production
Beryl Bainbridge
BB
's TV plays include Tiptoe through the Tulips, a picture of a dysfunctional family broadcast in early 1976, The Warrior's Return, about the life of Annie Besant
, broadcast on 23 February...
Occupation
Enid Bagnold
One of her tasks was to interview Annie Besant
while she was living with two Indian boys in Esher. Rather than be interviewed by an uninformed novice, Besant wrote the article for Bagnold on...
