Cambridge University Press

Charles Bradlaugh

Standard Name: Bradlaugh, Charles

Connections

Connections	Author name Sort ascending	Excerpt
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...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text	C. E. Plumptre	Her essays discuss philosophers such as Roger Bacon , Charles Bradlaugh , and Giordano Bruno . Poole, William Frederick et al. Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature. James Osborne; Houghton, Mifflin.
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...
Intertextuality and Influence	Edna Lyall	Charles Bradlaugh himself tutored EL on the subject of secularism for this novel, which was at first to be called Erica. She had nearly finished writing it by the end of 1882, but during...
Textual Features	Edna Lyall	As readers recognized at once, Luke Raeburn, the embattled atheist in this book, noticeably resembles the politician Charles Bradlaugh , who was excluded from taking his seat in the House of Commons after repeatedly being...
Textual Production	Edna Lyall	EL 's third novel, We Two, went further than Donovan in treating both politics and religion (and implicitly the controversial career of Charles Bradlaugh ). It was enormously successful: the breakthrough in her career. Athenæum. J. Lection. 2948 (1884): 533 Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
politics	Edna Lyall	EL met Charles Bradlaugh after writing to him about a review of her second novel, Donovan, published in his National Reformer. Payne, George A. "Edna Lyall:" an Appreciation. John Heywood. 28 She made three contributions to the Election Fund set up to...
Friends, Associates	Edna Lyall	She became a good friend of Bradlaugh himself and also of his daughter Hypatia . Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Literary responses	Edna Lyall	The Morning Post gave the book a good review, Escreet, J. M. The Life of Edna Lyall. Longmans, Green and Co. 45 but the London Quarterly called this and EL 's next work dangerous or wicked in their sympathetic portrayal of atheism. Corrick, Georgia. “’You will Blame Me . But . It Seemed to me Simply a Thing that Had to be Done’: Women’s Transgressions and Moral Choices in Edna Lyall’s Novels”. Women’s Writing, Vol. 14 , No. 3, pp. 476-95. 477 and n1 In deploring...
Friends, Associates	Matilda Betham-Edwards	MBE set a great deal of store by meeting men distinguished as authors or in other fields, as a spur to literary achievement of her own. She was given to boasting of her acquaintance with...
Occupation	Annie Besant	Under Charles Bradlaugh 's influence, AB began lecturing and writing for the National Secular Society . Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press. 71-3
politics	Annie Besant	AB became secretary of the Malthusian League (a new version of Bradlaugh 's 1860s league), which sought legal reform to end prosecution for public discussion of population issues and birth control. Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press. 121
Textual Production	Annie Besant	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
Reception	Annie Besant	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

Timeline

25 August 1857

The Obscene Publications Act allowed for the censorship of pornographic materials entering Britain.

February 1878

The acquittal of Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant in their famous obscenity trial meant that distribution of birth control information was no longer illegal.

1892

Sixty-seven year-old phrenologist Henry Loader was prosecuted for selling two birth control manuals, The Wife's Handbook and Fruits of Philosophy.

Texts

Bradlaugh, Charles et al. “Publishers’ Preface”. Fruits of Philosophy: An Essay on the Population Question, 2ndnd ed, Freethought Publishing, 1877, pp. 3-7.