Edward Carpenter: “It is noticeable how often Uranians (as in Plato’s Symposium ) of good position and breeding are drawn to rougher types…”. [Intermediate Sex]
I had met him first on the outskirts of Sheffield . . . and had recognized at once a peculiar intimacy and mutual understanding. Bred in the slums quite below civilization, but of healthy parentage of comparatively rustic origin, he had grown so to speak entirely out of his own roots; and a singularly affectionate, humorous, and swiftly intuitive nature had expanded along its own lines--subject of course to some of the surrounding conditions, but utterly untouched by the prevailing conventions and proprieties of the upper world. Always--even in utmost poverty--clean and sweet in person and neat in attire, he was attractive to most people. . . . Yet being by temperament loving and even passionate . . . he remained always fairly assured of himself--with the same sort of unconscious assurance that a plant or an animal may have in its own nature. . . . To George Merrill the arrival at Millthorpe was the fulfillment of a dream. [My days and dreams]
I had met him first on the outskirts of Sheffield . . . and had recognized at once a peculiar intimacy and mutual understanding. Bred in the slums quite below civilization, but of healthy parentage of comparatively rustic origin, he had grown so to speak entirely out of his own roots; and a singularly affectionate, humorous, and swiftly intuitive nature had expanded along its own lines--subject of course to some of the surrounding conditions, but utterly untouched by the prevailing conventions and proprieties of the upper world. Always--even in utmost poverty--clean and sweet in person and neat in attire, he was attractive to most people. . . . Yet being by temperament loving and even passionate . . . he remained always fairly assured of himself--with the same sort of unconscious assurance that a plant or an animal may have in its own nature. . . . To George Merrill the arrival at Millthorpe was the fulfillment of a dream. [My days and dreams]
Carpenter was an influential figure and well-known writer, and had a huge network of friends and acquaintances. They included the writers Walt Whitman, E. M. Forster, George Bernard Shaw, Tagore, Siegfried Sassoon, the first Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and the anarchist Emma Goldman. His many books and pamphlets include Towards Democracy (1883), Love’s Coming of Age (1896), The Intermediate Sex (1903) and Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folks (1914).
Although Carpenter had had a variety of male lovers over the years, it was on a train in 1891 that he would meet George Merrill, an uneducated lad of 20 from the slums of Sheffield. They would start a relationship that would endure for the next 37 years until Merrill’s unexpected death in 1928. What’s extraordinary is how they managed to avoid public scandal and live together as a couple for so many years given the attitudes to homosexuality in the wake of the Oscar Wilde trials. E.M. Forster visited Carpenter at Millthorpe in 1913 and famously names George Merrill as the inspiration for his novel Maurice.
Although Carpenter had had a variety of male lovers over the years, it was on a train in 1891 that he would meet George Merrill, an uneducated lad of 20 from the slums of Sheffield. They would start a relationship that would endure for the next 37 years until Merrill’s unexpected death in 1928. What’s extraordinary is how they managed to avoid public scandal and live together as a couple for so many years given the attitudes to homosexuality in the wake of the Oscar Wilde trials. E.M. Forster visited Carpenter at Millthorpe in 1913 and famously names George Merrill as the inspiration for his novel Maurice.
It was the direct result of a visit to Edward Carpenter at Millthorpe. Carpenter . . . was a socialist who ignored industrialism and a simple-lifer with an independent income and a . . . believer in the love of comrades, whom he sometimes called Uranians. It was this last aspect of him that attracted me in my loneliness. . . . I approached him . . . as one approaches a savior. It must have been on my second or third visit to the shrine that the spark was kindled as he and his comrade George Merrill combined to make a profound impression on me and to touch a creative spring. George Merrill also touched my backside—gently and just above the buttocks. . . . The sensation was unusual and I still remember it. . . . It was as much psychological as physical. It seemed to go straight through the small of my back into my ideas, without involving my thoughts. - E.M. ForsterCarpenter died within a year of his partner’s death and the two men are buried together in a grave in Guildford
TOWARDS DEMOCRACY
O Child of Uranus
O child of Uranus, wanderer down all times,
Darkling, from farthest ages of the Earth the same
Strange tender figure, full of grace and pity,
Yet outcast and misunderstood of men-
Thy Woman-soul within a Man's form dwelling,
[Was Adam perchance like this, ere Eve from his side was
drawn?]
So gentle, gracious, dignified, complete,
With man's strength to perform, and pride to suffer without sign,
And feminine sensitiveness to t.~e last fibre of being;
Strange twice-born, having entrance to both worlds-
Loved, loved by either sex,
And free of all their lore!
I see thee where down all of Time thou comest;
And women break their alabaster caskets, kiss and anoint thy
feet, and bless the womb that bare thee,
While in thy bosom with thee, lip to lip,
Thy younger comrade lies.
Lord of the love which rules this changing world,
Passing all partial loves, this one complete - the Mother love
and sex emotion blended-
I see thee where for centuries thou hast walked,
Lonely, the world of men
Saving, redeeming, drawing all to thee,
Yet outcast, slandered, pointed of the mob,
Misjudged and crucified.
Dear Son of heaven - long suffering wanderer through the
wilderness of civilisation-
The day draws nigh when from these mists of ages
Thy form in glory clad shall reappear.
Edward Carpenter
O Child of Uranus
O child of Uranus, wanderer down all times,
Darkling, from farthest ages of the Earth the same
Strange tender figure, full of grace and pity,
Yet outcast and misunderstood of men-
Thy Woman-soul within a Man's form dwelling,
[Was Adam perchance like this, ere Eve from his side was
drawn?]
So gentle, gracious, dignified, complete,
With man's strength to perform, and pride to suffer without sign,
And feminine sensitiveness to t.~e last fibre of being;
Strange twice-born, having entrance to both worlds-
Loved, loved by either sex,
And free of all their lore!
I see thee where down all of Time thou comest;
And women break their alabaster caskets, kiss and anoint thy
feet, and bless the womb that bare thee,
While in thy bosom with thee, lip to lip,
Thy younger comrade lies.
Lord of the love which rules this changing world,
Passing all partial loves, this one complete - the Mother love
and sex emotion blended-
I see thee where for centuries thou hast walked,
Lonely, the world of men
Saving, redeeming, drawing all to thee,
Yet outcast, slandered, pointed of the mob,
Misjudged and crucified.
Dear Son of heaven - long suffering wanderer through the
wilderness of civilisation-
The day draws nigh when from these mists of ages
Thy form in glory clad shall reappear.
Edward Carpenter
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