Annie Besant

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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.
Photograph of Annie Besant looking directly at the camera with her right hand over her chest. She has a serious expression and is wearing a white high frill-collared dress with possibly a shawl over it. She has two rings on her visible right hand. She has blonde hair and it is in an updo.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates George Bernard Shaw
He was an important figure in the lives and careers of almost innumerable women writers: a good friend of Annie Besant , Sylvia Pankhurst , Elizabeth Robins , and Christopher St John , a romantic...
Material Conditions of Writing Edna Lyall
She began writing it on a sunny August morning at Farnham, after reading in the Daily News of how Bradlaugh , the well-known radical, in prison for refusing to take the parliamentary oath on...
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...
Occupation Jean Ingelow
She always concerned herself with the plight of the poor and she frequently paid for and served what she called copyright dinners for elderly paupers in Holland Street, Kensington. (She paid for them out...
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
politics Sarojini Naidu
From the first years of the new century, SN became heavily involved in Indian national politics. She was an unusually eloquent speaker and brought her voice to bear on many of India's political and social...
politics Sarojini Naidu
The deputation was sponsored by Irish-English suffragist Margaret Cousins . The Indian women's movement gained momentum after Annie Besant was interned by the Governor of Madras in June 1917. After her release in September, women...
politics Sarojini Naidu
After meeting Gandhi, SN devoted increased energy to the cause of Indian self-government, and participated in his civil disobediance campaigns. She also joined Annie Besant 's Home Rule movement.
Sengupta, Padmini. Sarojini Naidu: A Biography. Asia Publishing House.
86-9, 98, 113-14, 147
politics Emmeline Pankhurst
EP was politically active in London from at least 1887, when she and her husband attended the Bloody Sunday demonstration in Trafalgar Square on 13 November.
Purvis, June. Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography. Routledge.
26
The second of EP 's two London homes...
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
politics Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
At the height of the suffrage movement, EPL spoke in connection with the largest procession to date, at the Albert Hall. So did Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst , Annie Kenney , Annie Besant ...
politics Jane Hume Clapperton
Others who attended the club included Annie Besant , Olive Schreiner , Elizabeth Blackwell , Henrietta Müller , and Eleanor Marx .
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
politics Edith J. Simcox
Although EJS was nominated to the Council of the newly revived International Working Men's Association , along with Annie Besant , Harriet Law , and Charles Bradlaugh , she subsequently withdrew.
McKenzie, Keith Alexander, and Gordon S. Haight. Edith Simcox and George Eliot. Oxford University Press.
42-3
politics Edith J. Simcox
On 12 December 1877 EJS remarked in her autobiography that a Council was appointed to which I was nominated, then Mrs Besant , then Mrs Harriet Law , and Mr Bradlaugh in between. I had...

Timeline

February 1913: The last issue of The Link: The Organ of...

Building item

February 1913

The last issue of The Link: The Organ of the Women's Socialist Movement was published in London.

2 July 1914: The first issue of the magazine Blast, edited...

Building item

2 July 1914

The first issue of the magazine Blast, edited by Wyndham Lewis , formally announced the arrival of Vorticism, an avant-garde movement in art.

Texts

Besant, Annie. “White Slavery in London”. The Link.
Besant, Annie. Why I am a Socialist. A. Besant and C. Bradlaugh, 1886.
Besant, Annie. Why I Became a Theosophist. Freethought Publishing, 1889.