Inscribed to an English socialist friend and wife of a founder member of the Labour Party, Lucy Henderson, with a letter to her from the pioneer of LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and environmentalism laid in.
Second edition bound in publisher’s cloth with gilt lettering; fading to spine and a stain close to the tail. Floral endpapers; the first one only partially attached along the gutter. Carpenter has inscribed the half title opposite: ‘Lucy Henderson All good wishes from E.C.’ Otherwise the book is very good internally. Carpenter’s letter is written on two sides of a single, heavily browned oblong leaf of notepaper (18x11cm) and undated but probably from the 1890s or a little after. Carpenter asks for news of ‘yr brother and wife. Are they in the Riviera now?’ (Lucy Henderson was the daughter of Christopher Slaughter of Norwich - we haven’t identified her brother’s name) as ‘if I knew they were at any nice little place on that Coast they might form a sort of object or objective... I am feeling quite well and strong again - but rather crave for sunshine...’ He signs himself ‘Ed: Carpenter Holmesfield 20 Feb’.
Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) was also one of the founders of the Labour movement, a poet and philosopher - as well as a regular visitor to the Riviera. Back home, Holmesfield was where he built his house Millthorpe, on the edge of the Peak District National Park where he experimented with a new model for a living with nature and with his male partner, George Merrill. Regarded as an eccentric crank at the time, he is now seen as a pioneer of sexual liberty which is one of the subjects of this book. Lucy and Fred Henderson were early socialist; Fred served time for his part in a Norwich food riot in 1887, became a friend of William Morris and was the first socialist elected to Norwich City Council in 1903. His wife Lucy Henderson, the recipient of this letter, served as a Poor Law Guardian and on Norwich council from 1920. Both were both natural allies and friends of Carpenter.
