Philip Mairet
Encyclopedia
Philip Mairet was a designer, writer and journalist. He had a wide range of interest: crafts, Alfred Adler
and psychiatry, and Social Credit
. He was also a translator of major figures including Sartre. He wrote biographies of Sir Patrick Geddes and A. R. Orage, with both of whom he was closely associated.
Although influenced largely by the example of Orage, a follower of Gurdjieff, Mairet was in later life an Anglican Christian. As editor of the New English Weekly
in the 1930s, he championed both Christian Sociology (in the sense of Maurice Reckitt
, a friend), as it was known at the time, and ideas on agriculture
that would come together later as organic farming
.
. As a young man he worked in graphic design for Charles Robert Ashbee
, becoming part of his community at Chipping Campden
, and illustrating Conradin: A Philosophical Ballad (1908). He then worked for Patrick Geddes.
His wife Ethel Mairet (1872 - 1952) (previously married to Ananda Coomaraswamy
) was an influential weaver and teacher, settled in Ditchling
, Sussex
and was associated with The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic
. She was born Ethel Mary Partridge and trained at the Royal Academy of Music
; her marriage to Coomaraswamy lasted from 1903 to 1913. They met because Philip had come to Ditchling to work as a labourer. He was avoiding conscripted military service during World War I
, and developed an interest in glass-making. He was that at time influenced by Dimitrije Mitrinović
, attached to the Serbian Delegation in London, who met Mairet in 1917. Eventually Mairet was discovered, enrolled in the British Army, and spent a period in prison.
From 1921 to 1924 he worked as an actor, at the Old Vic
. He began attending Orage's editorial meetings.
Orage died suddenly in 1934, leaving the New English Weekly in limbo. Mairet, then the literary editor, emerged as the editor by a complex route: one group of Social Credit
advocates wanted to exclude another group, of supporters of Mitrinović. Mairet was identified more with a third faction, the Chandos Group, around Maurice Reckitt, with Travers Symons, V. A. Demant, and Alan Porter. This overlapped the Mitrinović group: there had been a shared interest in the journal Purpose, from 1929, and the theories of Adler were also a common factor. Symons introduced Mairet to T. S. Eliot
, who was holding the ring. In practical terms the Chandos Group were already deeply involved in producing the New English Weekly, and were sympathetic to Social Credit.
He belonged to numerous other small societies and discussion groups of the period before World War II
. He joined Rolf Gardiner
's Kinship in Husbandry group in 1941. He edited The Frontier for Walter Moberly
's Christian Frontier Council.
He was an early supporter of George Orwell
, giving him literary work for the New English Weekly, and writing in very positive and comprehending terms about Homage to Catalonia
and Orwell's approach. A friend and long-time correspondent also of T. S. Eliot, who dedicated his Notes towards the Definition of Culture to Mairet, he became one of the best-connected of all the British Christian intellectuals of that time.
Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. In collaboration with Sigmund Freud and a small group of Freud's colleagues, Adler was among the co-founders of the psychoanalytic movement as a core member of the Vienna...
and psychiatry, and Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
. He was also a translator of major figures including Sartre. He wrote biographies of Sir Patrick Geddes and A. R. Orage, with both of whom he was closely associated.
Although influenced largely by the example of Orage, a follower of Gurdjieff, Mairet was in later life an Anglican Christian. As editor of the New English Weekly
New English Weekly
The New English Weekly was a leading review of "Public Affairs, Literature and the Arts."It was founded in April 1932 by Alfred Richard Orage shortly after his return from Paris...
in the 1930s, he championed both Christian Sociology (in the sense of Maurice Reckitt
Maurice Reckitt
Maurice Benington Reckitt was a leading British Anglo-Catholic and Christian Socialist writer. He edited Christendom, A Journal of Christian Sociology from 1931 to 1950....
, a friend), as it was known at the time, and ideas on agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
that would come together later as organic farming
Organic farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...
.
Life
He was educated at the Hornsey School of Art, becoming a draughtsman and designer of stained glassStained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
. As a young man he worked in graphic design for Charles Robert Ashbee
Charles Robert Ashbee
Charles Robert Ashbee was an English designer and entrepreneur who was a prime mover of the Arts and Crafts movement that took its craft ethic from the works of John Ruskin and its co-operative structure from the socialism of William Morris.-Early life:He was the son of businessman and erotic...
, becoming part of his community at Chipping Campden
Chipping Campden
Chipping Campden is a small market town within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its elegant terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century...
, and illustrating Conradin: A Philosophical Ballad (1908). He then worked for Patrick Geddes.
His wife Ethel Mairet (1872 - 1952) (previously married to Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...
) was an influential weaver and teacher, settled in Ditchling
Ditchling
Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling....
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
and was associated with The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic
The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic
The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic was an art colony and experiment in communal life in early 20th century England. The story of the Guild began when Eric Gill the sculptor and letter cutter came to Ditchling, Sussex in 1907 with his apprentice Joseph Cribb and was soon followed by fellow...
. She was born Ethel Mary Partridge and trained at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
; her marriage to Coomaraswamy lasted from 1903 to 1913. They met because Philip had come to Ditchling to work as a labourer. He was avoiding conscripted military service during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and developed an interest in glass-making. He was that at time influenced by Dimitrije Mitrinović
Dimitrije Mitrinovic
Dimitrije Mitrinović was a Serbian philosopher, poet, revolutionary, mystic, theoretician of modern painting, traveller and cosmopolite.-Biography:Dimitrije Mitrinović was born in a village near the town of Stolac in Herzegovina...
, attached to the Serbian Delegation in London, who met Mairet in 1917. Eventually Mairet was discovered, enrolled in the British Army, and spent a period in prison.
From 1921 to 1924 he worked as an actor, at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
. He began attending Orage's editorial meetings.
Orage died suddenly in 1934, leaving the New English Weekly in limbo. Mairet, then the literary editor, emerged as the editor by a complex route: one group of Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
advocates wanted to exclude another group, of supporters of Mitrinović. Mairet was identified more with a third faction, the Chandos Group, around Maurice Reckitt, with Travers Symons, V. A. Demant, and Alan Porter. This overlapped the Mitrinović group: there had been a shared interest in the journal Purpose, from 1929, and the theories of Adler were also a common factor. Symons introduced Mairet to 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...
, who was holding the ring. In practical terms the Chandos Group were already deeply involved in producing the New English Weekly, and were sympathetic to Social Credit.
He belonged to numerous other small societies and discussion groups of the period before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He joined Rolf Gardiner
Rolf Gardiner
Henry Rolf Gardiner was an English rural revivalist and sympathizer with Nazism. He was founder of groups significant in the British history of organic farming, as well being a participant in inter-war far right politics.-Early life:...
's Kinship in Husbandry group in 1941. He edited The Frontier for Walter Moberly
Walter Hamilton Moberly
Sir Walter Hamilton Moberly, GBE, KCB, Kt, DSO was a British academic.-Life:The son of Rev. Robert Campbell Moberly and the grandson of George Moberly, he was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford...
's Christian Frontier Council.
He was an early supporter of George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, giving him literary work for the New English Weekly, and writing in very positive and comprehending terms about Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia is political journalist and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. The first edition was published in 1938. The book was not published in the United States until February 1952. The American edition had a preface...
and Orwell's approach. A friend and long-time correspondent also of T. S. Eliot, who dedicated his Notes towards the Definition of Culture to Mairet, he became one of the best-connected of all the British Christian intellectuals of that time.
Works
- An essay on crafts & obedience (1918), Douglas Pepler
- ABC of Adler's psychology (1928)
- Alfred Adler Problems of Neurosis (1929) editor, case histories
- Aristocracy and the Meaning of Class Rule - An Essay upon Aristocracy Past and Future (1931)
- The Douglas Manual: Being a Recension of Passages from the Works of Major C. H. Douglas, Outlining Social Credit (Stanley Nott, 1934) editor
- A. R. Orage: a memoir (1936)
- The Frontier (1951)
- Christian Essays in Psychiatry (1956) editor
- Pioneer of Sociology: The Life and Letters of Patrick Geddes (1957)
- John Middleton Murry (1958)