Edward Carpenter
A Life of Liberty and Love
Published on 5. October 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
574 pages
978-1-84467-421-3 (ISBN)
Description
The gay socialist writer Edward Carpenter had an extraordinary impact on the cultural and political landscape of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A mystic advocate of, among other causes, free love, recycling, nudism, women's suffrage and prison reform, his work anticipated the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Sheila Rowbotham's highly acclaimed biography situates Carpenter's life and thought in relation to the social, aesthetic and intellectual movements of his day, and explores his friendships with figures such as Walt Whitman, E.M. Forster, Isadora Duncan and Emma Goldman. Edward Carpenter is a compelling portrait of a man described by contemporaries as a 'weather-vane' for his times.
Reviews / Votes
Exhaustively researched and resonant in detail. It is a splendid reassessment of a man who was both typical of his own time and light years ahead of it. -- Fiona MacCarthy * Guardian * One of the best political biographies for many years. It is not just a book about the past; it's bursting with ideas that remain relevant to the future of humanity. -- Peter Tatchell * Observer Books of the Year * A powerful and entertaining biography of the 'sexy sage of Sheffield' ... This absorbing book opens the whole period of early socialism in Britain. And it reads beautifully. -- Jeanette Winterson * Times * Immensely valuable. -- Colm Toibin * London Review of Books * Magnificent ... definitive. -- Tristram Hunt * Observer * I devoured these 550 pages in a day, longing for more. -- Richard Canning * Independent * Sheila Rowbotham has given us not just an account of one remarkable individual's life, but has helped to explain how we evolved into the society we are today. -- Martin Pugh * Times Literary Supplement * An excellent new biography. Rowbotham masterfully renders Carpenter relevant by writing with authority as well as a humorous intimacy that comes from spending decades studying Carpenter. * Politics and Culture *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
718 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84467-421-3 (9781844674213)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2020
Verso Books
€24.49
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
10/2008
Verso Books
€50.94
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Sheila Rowbotham, who helped start the women's liberation movement in Britain, is known internationally as an historian of feminism and radical social movements. She is the author of the ground-breaking books Women, Resistance and Revolution; Woman's Consciousness, Man's World; and Hidden from History. Her later works include Dreamers of a New Day: and Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love, shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Biography.