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 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...
Publishing
Isabella Ormston Ford
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...
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
Publishing
Charlotte Mew
CM
published another short story, The Smile, in Annie Besant
's journal The Theosophist.
Warner, Val. “New Light on Charlotte Mew”. PN Review, Vol.
24
, No. 1, pp. 43-7.
45
Mew, Charlotte. “Introduction”. Collected Poems and Prose, edited by Val Warner, Carcanet and Virago, p. ix - xxii.
vii
Reception
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Three-quarters of a century later her daughter reported that the young Edmund Gosse
was a great admirer of BRP
's poetry in general. As a schoolboy he knew and loved her romantic lyric about Robin...
Residence
Margaret Harkness
She visited Annie Besant
in Madras, where she attended a Theosophist
convention and visited the Central Hindu College
, founded by Besant. In July 1907 she observed the fiftieth anniversary of the Indian Mutiny...
The discussion on preventative checks had begun in January 1886 with Annie Besant
's talk on The State and Sexual Relations, which advocated the use of contraceptives. This initiated a storm of debate among members.
Bland, Lucy. Banishing the Beast: Sexuality and the Early Feminists. New Press.
19
Textual Production
Constance Naden
Also in 1887, she made the selections and supplied a prefatory note for Robert Lewins
's tract entitled Humanism v. Theism, which appeared with the Freethought Publishing Company
associated with Annie Besant
and the...
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...
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....
