Annie Besant

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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.

Milestones

1 October 1847

Annie Wood (later AB ) was born at 2 Fish Street Hill in London.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
1

March 1877

With Charles Bradlaugh , AB issued their reprint of a notorious manual on birth control, Charles Knowlton 's Fruits of Philosophy, 1832, with a publisher's preface by themselves.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
370

28 June 1877

AB and Charles Bradlaugh were convicted of obscenity and sentenced, initially, to six months in prison for reprinting, as Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet on contraception dating from 1832.
Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
102, 119

November 1932

The last pamphlet published by AB before her death appeared through the Theosophical Society , The Bearing of Religious Ideals on Social Reorganization.
The Theosophical Society in Australia. http://www.austheos.org.au/.

20 September 1933

AB died at Adyar in India.
Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
326
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.

Biography

Birth and Background

1 October 1847

Annie Wood (later AB ) was born at 2 Fish Street Hill in London.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
1

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