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Goldworthy Lowes Dickinson (August 6, 1862 - August 3, 1932), was an English historian and political activist. Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. Year 1862 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Monday Events 8 - Roman Empire General Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland He led most of his life at Cambridge, where he did a dissertation on neoplatonism before becoming a fellow. The city of Cambridge (ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical Philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD founded by He was closely tied with the Bloomsbury Group. The Bloomsbury Group was an English collectivity of loving friends and relatives who lived in or near London during the first half of the twentieth century

A noted pacifist, Dickinson protested Britain's involvement in World War I. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All His essay on the Covenant from the Treaty of Versailles (The Future of the Covenant, London: League of Nations Union, 1920) helped shape public opinion towards the League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. The League of Nations was an International organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920

Contents

Life

Early years

Dickinson was born in London to Margaret Ellen Williams Dickinson, daughter of William Smith Williams who was literary advisor to Smith, Elder & Company and had discovered Charlotte Brontë. Charlotte Brontë (ˈbrɒnti (21 April 1816 &ndash 31 March 1855 was a British Novelist, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters whose Novels His father was Lowes Cato Dickinson (1869-1908), a portrait painter. When the boy was about one year old his family moved to The Spring Cottage in Hanwell, then a country village. Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in West London, between Ealing and Southall. The family also included his brother, Arthur, three years older, an older sister, May, and two younger sisters, Hester and Janet. [1]

His schooling included attendance at a day school in Somerset Street, Portman Square, when he was 10 or 11. At about age 12 he was sent to Beomonds boarding school in Chertsey. Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. His teenage years from 14 to 19 were spent at Charterhouse School in Godalming where his brother, Arthur, preceded him. Godalming is a town in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, seven kilometres (four miles south of Guildford. He was unhappy at the school, although he enjoyed seeing plays put on by visiting actors, and he played violin in the school orchestra. While he was at Charterhouse, his family moved from Hanwell to a house behind All Souls Church in Langham Place. [1]

In 1881 he went to King's College, Cambridge as an exhibitioner (scholarship student), where his brother, Arthur, had again preceded him. King's College Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Near the end of his first year he received a telegram informing him that his mother had died from asthma. Asthma is a chronic Condition involving the Respiratory system in which the airways occasionally constrict become inflamed, and are During his college years, his tutor, Oscar Browning, was a strong influence, and Dickinson became a close friend of fellow King's College student C.R. Ashbee. Charles Robert Ashbee (London May 17, 1863 &ndash Sevenoaks, Kent May 23, 1942) was a designer Dickinson won the chancellor's English medal in 1884 for a poem on Savonarola, and in graduating that summer he was awarded a first class Classical Tripos. Girolamo Savonarola ( September 21, 1452 &ndash May 23, 1498) was an Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence from The University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours Bachelor's degree by Tripos ( a word which has an obscure [1]

After traveling in the Netherlands and Germany, he returned to Cambridge late that year and was elected to the Cambridge Conversazione Society, better known as the Society of Apostles. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. In a year or two he was part of the circle that included Roger Fry, J. M. E. McTaggart, and Nathaniel Wedd. Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English artist and an Art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury group John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart ( September 3, 1866 – January 18, 1925) was an Idealist metaphysicist. [1]

Career

In the summer of 1885 he worked at a co-operative farm, Craig Farm at Tilford near Farnham in Surrey. Tilford is a small village about four miles South of Farnham in Surrey, England. Farnham is a Town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The farm had been started by Harold Cox as an experiment in engaging in the simple living. Harold Cox (Tonbridge Kent 1859 - 1 May 1936) was a Liberal MP for Preston from 1906 to 1909 Dickinson was proud of his hoeing, digging, and ploughing. That fall, and continuing to the spring of 1886, Dickinson joined the University Extension Scheme to give public lectures that covered Carlyle, Emerson, Browning, and Tennyson. Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881 was a Scottish essayist satirist and historian whose work was highly influential during the Victorian era. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 &ndash April 27 1882 was an American essayist philosopher poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century Robert Browning (7 May 1812 - 12 December 1889 was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of Dramatic verse, especially Dramatic monologues made him one of Alfred Tennyson 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892 was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and remains one of the most popular English poets He toured the country, living for a term at Mansfield and for a second term at Chester and Southport. Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the County, lying on the River Maun, from which the name of the town Chester is the County town of Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77040 Southport is a seaside town on the Irish Sea coast situated within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in England, UK. He spent a brief time in Wales afterwards. [1]

With financial help from his father, Dickinson then began studies for a medical degree, beginning in October 1886 at Cambridge. Year 1886 ( MDCCCLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Although he became dissatisfied with his studies and nearly decided to drop out, he persevered and passed his M. B. examinations in 1887 and 1888. Year 1887 ( MDCCCLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1888 ( MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Yet he finally decided he wasn't interested in a career in medicine. [1]

In March 1887 a dissertation on Plotinus helped elect him to a fellowship at King's College. Plotinus ( Greek:) (ca AD 204–270 was a major philosopher of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism (along with his During Roger Fry's last year at Cambridge (1887-1888), Dickinson, a homosexual,[2] fell in love with him. Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English artist and an Art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury group Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. After an initially intense relationship (that according to Dickinson's biography didn't include sex with Fry, a heterosexual), the two maintained a long friendship. Through Fry, Dickinson soon met Jack McTaggart and Ferdinand Schiller. [1]

Dickinson then settled down at Cambridge, although he again lectured through the University Extension Scheme, travelling to Newcastle, Leicester, and Norwich. Newcastle upon Tyne ( (often shortened to Newcastle) is a city and Metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, England Leicester (ˈlɛstə is the largest city and Unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England, and is the traditional History Roman The Romans had their regional capital at Venta Icenorum on the river to the south which is near modern-day Caistor St Edmund His fellowship at King's College (as an historian) was permanently renewed in 1896. Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year That year his book, The Greek View of Life was published. He later wrote a number of dialogues in the Socratic tradition. Socratic may refer to Socrates Socratic method Socratic (band [1]

But we must not think that Dickinson lived the detached life of a stereotypical Cambridge professor. When G. K. Chesterton chose contemporary thinkers he disagreed with for his 1905 book, Heretics, the focus of Chapter 12 was "Paganism and Mr. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936 was an influential English writer of the early 20th century Lowes Dickinson. " There he notes:

Mr. Lowes Dickinson, the most pregnant and provocative of recent writers on this and similar subjects, is far too solid a man to have fallen into this old error of the mere anarchy of Paganism. In order to make hay of that Hellenic enthusiasm which has as its ideal mere appetite and egotism, it is not necessary to know much philosophy, but merely to know a little Greek. Mr. Lowes Dickinson knows a great deal of philosophy, and also a great deal of Greek, and his error, if error he has, is not that of the crude hedonist. But the contrast which he offers between Christianity and Paganism in the matter of moral ideals--a contrast which he states very ably in a paper called “How Long Halt Ye?” which appeared in the Independent Review--does, I think, contain an error of a deeper kind.

Chesterton goes on to suggest that Christianity has so altered our civilization, that we can never return to Paganism:

My objection to Mr. Lowes Dickinson and the reassertors of the pagan ideal is, then, this. I accuse them of ignoring definite human discoveries in the moral world, discoveries as definite, though not as material, as the discovery of the circulation of the blood. We cannot go back to an ideal of reason and sanity. For mankind has discovered that reason does not lead to sanity. We cannot go back to an ideal of pride and enjoyment. For mankind has discovered that pride does not lead to enjoyment.

Finally, Chesterton closes with a suggestion:

But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end--where Paganism ended. I do not mean that we shall end in destruction. I mean that we shall end in Christianity.

Dickinson was a lecturer in history from 1886 to his retirement in 1920, and the college librarian from 1893 to 1896. Year 1886 ( MDCCCLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar Year 1893 ( MDCCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Dickinson helped establish the Economics and Politics Tripos and taught political science within the University. For 15 years he also lectured at the London School of Economics. The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the [3]

In 1897 he made his first trip to Greece, travelling with Nathaniel Wedd, Robin Mayor, and A. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία M. Daniel. [1]

He joined the Society of Psychical Research in 1890, and served on its Council from 1904 to 1920. Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1904 ( MCMIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting on Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar [1]

In 1903 he helped to found the Independent Review. Several magazines journals and newspapers have used this title some of which are Independent Review (1904-1911 a now defunct progressive English journal Edward Jenks was editor, and members of its editorial board included Dickinson, F. W. Hirst, C. F. G. Masterman, G. M. Trevelyan, and Nathaniel Wedd. Francis Wrigley Hirst ( 10 June, 1873 - 22 February, 1953) was a British journalist writer and editor of The Economist Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman PC ( 24 October 1873 &ndash 17 November 1927) was a British Liberal Party politician George Macaulay Trevelyan CBE OM ( February 16, 1876 Welcombe House, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire Fry designed the front cover. Over the years Dickinson contributed a number of articles to it, some later reprinted in Religion: A Criticism and a Forecast, (1905) and Religion and Immortality, (1911). [1]

World War I and after

Within a fortnight of the start of World War I, Dickinson had drafted schemes for a "League of Nations" and, together with Lord Dickinson and Lord Bryce, he planned the ideas behind of the League of Nations and played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All James Bryce 1st Viscount Bryce, OM, GCVO, FRS, PC, FBA ( May 10, 1838 &ndash January 22, 1922 The organization eventually became the nucleus of the League of Nations Union. Dickinson promoted his ideas with a large number of books and pamphlets<red name=kc/>, including his book The International Anarchy. [3] Dickinson also attended a pacifist conference in The Hague in 1915. In 1916 Dickinson started a lecture tour in the United States promoting the idea of a League of Nations. [1]

In 1929, the Talks Department of the BBC invited him to give the first and last lectures in a series called "Points of View". Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He went on to give several series of BBC talks on various topics including Goethe and Plato. ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece [1]

Death and afterward

After a prostate operation in 1932, Dickinson appeared to be recovering, but died on August 3. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 8 - Roman Empire General Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus. Memorial services were held in King's College Chapel, and in London. [1]

E.M. Forster, by then a good friend who had been influenced by Dickinson's books, became his literary executor. Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH (1 January 1879–7 June 1970 was an English novelist Short story writer Essayist, and Librettist Dickinson's sisters then asked Forster to write the dead man's biography, which was published as Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson in 1934. Forster has been criticized for refraining from publishing details of Dickinson's sexual proclivities, including his foot fetishism and unrequited love for young men. Foot fetishism, foot partialism, foot worship, or podophilia is a pronounced sexual interest in feet. Unrequited love is love that is not openly reciprocated even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired [4]

Works

Posthumous:

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n “Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson”, The Knitting Circle, <http://www.knittingcircle.org.uk/goldsworthydickinson.html>. Retrieved on 27 February 2007 
  2. ^ David Halperin, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, Routledge, 1990, 'Introduction', page 2
  3. ^ a b “The Papers of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson”, Janus, <http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0272%2FPP%2FGLD>. Retrieved on 27 February 2007 
  4. ^ “Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson”, Literary Encyclopedia, <http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4922>. Retrieved on 27 February 2007 

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