Dora Marsden
Encyclopedia
Dora Marsden was an English feminist
editor
of avant-garde literary journals, and an author
of philosophical
writings.
, near Huddersfield
, Yorkshire
. Her parents were Fred and Hannah (née Gartside) Marsden. In 1890 Fred Marsden left his family after economic failures at his textile plant and emigrated to Philadelphia, US with his eldest son. Hannah worked as a seamstress to support her children. Dora Marsden began working as a tutor at the age of thirteen. At the age of eighteen she attended Owens College in Manchester (later the Victoria University of Manchester
) for three years, then worked full-time as a teacher for five years. Marsden became involved with women's suffrage
during her studies. In 1909 she was arrested for her political activity and subsequently accepted a full-time position with the Women's Social and Political Union
, only to leave it in 1911 due to conflicts with its leadership.
The magazines were mainly published under the patronage of Harriet Shaw Weaver
. During the course of publication the political bias of Marsdens editorials tackled subjects related mainly to feminism
. Though she also commented on egoism
and individualist anarchism
, her quarrels with Benjamin Tucker
ended with her rejection of Tuckerian anarchism and an embrace of "archism".
Literally, the publications were high-standing, propelling the modernist
movement. Ezra Pound
, T. S. Eliot
, D. H. Lawrence
, Wyndham Lewis
, Herbert Read
and James Joyce
contributed material to the periodical. Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
was published for the first time as a series in The Egoist.
The Egoist (a name suggested by Ezra Pound
) was not named in the honour of the philosophical egoist Max Stirner
. Rather, it was a philosophical term that was "in the air" by the time, associated with writers such as Friedrich Nietzsche
and Maurice Barrès
. When Stirner's book The Ego and its Own
was published, Marsden never fully reviewed it; she did admit to liking it but also partly dismissed it, mostly on the ground that she disagreed with Stirner about the nature of God
: Stirner saw God as a repressive idea, imposed from the outside, from society, so it could control the individual. Alternatively, Marsden claimed that god was an invention of the self in its attempt to encompass the world and rule over it, hence, a positive, freeing idea.
" drawing from philosophy
, mathematics
, physics
, biology
and theology
. It was eventually published by Harriet Shaw Weaver in two volumes as The Definition of the Godhead in 1928 and Mysteries of Christianity in 1930.
This large body of work produced by Marsden was not well received (not even by her former supporters) and she suffered a psychological breakdown in 1930, which was further deepened by the death of her mother in 1935. As a result, she spent the last 25 years of her life in a home for the psychologically ill in Dumfries
, Scotland
.
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of avant-garde literary journals, and an author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
writings.
Early life
Dora Marsden was born 5 March 1882 in MarsdenMarsden, West Yorkshire
Marsden is a large village within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, west of Huddersfield and located at the confluence of the River Colne and the Wessenden Brook...
, near Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. Her parents were Fred and Hannah (née Gartside) Marsden. In 1890 Fred Marsden left his family after economic failures at his textile plant and emigrated to Philadelphia, US with his eldest son. Hannah worked as a seamstress to support her children. Dora Marsden began working as a tutor at the age of thirteen. At the age of eighteen she attended Owens College in Manchester (later the Victoria University of Manchester
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester was a university in Manchester, England. On 1 October 2004 it merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form a new entity, "The University of Manchester".-1851 - 1951:The University was founded in 1851 as Owens College,...
) for three years, then worked full-time as a teacher for five years. Marsden became involved with women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
during her studies. In 1909 she was arrested for her political activity and subsequently accepted a full-time position with the Women's Social and Political Union
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
, only to leave it in 1911 due to conflicts with its leadership.
Work as editor
Her most important cultural contribution was the editing of three publications, the latter more or less continuations of the previous series, beginning in late 1911:- The Freewoman, November 19111911 in literatureThe year 1911 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*George Moore publishes the first of his three-volume Hail and Farewell .*Gallimard publishing house founded in Paris by Gaston Gallimard...
– October 19121912 in literatureThe year 1912 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Virginia Stephen marries Leonard Woolf.*Frieda von Richthofen meets D. H. Lawrence.-New books:*Mary Antin - The Promised Land*L... - The New FreewomanThe New FreewomanThe New Freewoman was a monthly London literary magazine edited by Dora Marsden and owned by Harriet Shaw Weaver. Initially Rebecca West was in charge of the literary content of the magazine, but after meeting Ezra Pound at one of Violet Hunt's parties in 1913 she recommended that he be appointed...
, June 19131913 in literatureThe year 1913 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Husayn Haykal publishes the first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab.-New books:* Alain-Fournier — Le Grand Meaulnes* L...
– December 19131913 in literatureThe year 1913 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Husayn Haykal publishes the first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab.-New books:* Alain-Fournier — Le Grand Meaulnes* L... - The EgoistThe Egoist (periodical)The Egoist was a London literary magazine published from 1914 to 1919, during which time it published important early modernist poetry and fiction. In its manifesto, it claimed to "recognise no taboos," and published a number of controversial works, such as parts of Ulysses...
, January 19141914 in literatureThe year 1914 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The literature of World War I makes its first appearance.*November 7 - The first issue of The New Republic magazine is published....
– December 19191919 in literatureThe year 1919 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain return to Somerville College, Oxford, to complete their education following war service.*Two paintings by E. E...
The magazines were mainly published under the patronage of Harriet Shaw Weaver
Harriet Shaw Weaver
Harriet Shaw Weaver was a political activist and a magazine editor. She also became the patron of James Joyce....
. During the course of publication the political bias of Marsdens editorials tackled subjects related mainly to feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
. Though she also commented on egoism
Egotism
Egotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics" – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself....
and individualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism refers to several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and his or her will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a...
, her quarrels with Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker was a proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century, and editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty.-Summary:Tucker says that he became an anarchist at the age of 18...
ended with her rejection of Tuckerian anarchism and an embrace of "archism".
Literally, the publications were high-standing, propelling the modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
movement. Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
, Wyndham Lewis
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
, Herbert Read
Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
contributed material to the periodical. Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
was published for the first time as a series in The Egoist.
The Egoist (a name suggested by Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
) was not named in the honour of the philosophical egoist Max Stirner
Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt , better known as Max Stirner , was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism...
. Rather, it was a philosophical term that was "in the air" by the time, associated with writers such as Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
and Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and socialist politician and agitator known for his nationalist and antisemitic views....
. When Stirner's book The Ego and its Own
The Ego and Its Own
The Ego and Its Own is a philosophical work by German philosopher Max Stirner . This work was first published in 1845, although with a stated publication date of "1844" to confuse the Prussian censors.-Content:...
was published, Marsden never fully reviewed it; she did admit to liking it but also partly dismissed it, mostly on the ground that she disagreed with Stirner about the nature of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
: Stirner saw God as a repressive idea, imposed from the outside, from society, so it could control the individual. Alternatively, Marsden claimed that god was an invention of the self in its attempt to encompass the world and rule over it, hence, a positive, freeing idea.
Marsden's philosophical legacy
In 1920 Marsden withdrew from the literary and political scene and spent fifteen years in seclusion, completing a "magnum opusMasterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
" drawing from philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
. It was eventually published by Harriet Shaw Weaver in two volumes as The Definition of the Godhead in 1928 and Mysteries of Christianity in 1930.
This large body of work produced by Marsden was not well received (not even by her former supporters) and she suffered a psychological breakdown in 1930, which was further deepened by the death of her mother in 1935. As a result, she spent the last 25 years of her life in a home for the psychologically ill in Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
See also
- History of feminismHistory of feminismThe history of feminism involves the story of feminist movements and of feminist thinkers. Depending on time, culture and country, feminists around the world have sometimes had different causes and goals...
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- SuffragetteSuffragette"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
- Women's Social and Political UnionWomen's Social and Political UnionThe Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
- Women's suffrageWomen's suffrageWomen's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
- Women's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...