Shelia Rowbotham on Edward Carpenter January 22, 2009

The first major biography of late Victorian sexual and political libertarian, Edward Carpenter, by renowned feminist historian, Sheila Rowbotham. A rare document of the alternative lifestyles and radicalism of Carpenter's times by a woman who was on the frontline of the left and feminist movements of the sixties.

Edward Carpenter, libertarian and campaigner for gay love, women's suffrage, nudism and recycling, was a central figure in the cultural and political landscape of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this biography situates
Carpenter's life and thought in relation to the social, aesthetic and intellectual movements of his day, and explores his friendship with figures such as Walt Whitman, Robert Graves, Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Isadora Duncan and Emma Goldman.

With a commitment to bringing out the range of interconnections evident in Carpenter's life, through his network, his mix of causes, his interests and his thinking, Rowbotham knits together a great alternative social history of Victorian England and presents a compelling portrait of a man described by his contemporaries as a "weather-vane" for his times.

Official Website: http://alexanderberkmansocialclub.blogspot.com/