 |
 |
|
A Congratulatory Letter
Edward Carpenter, the English visionary, with his certain genius, took note in the last century of close-to-the-flesh questions that people often thought too intimate to discuss: questions involving sexuality, daily relations with neighbors, relations with one's own thoughts, egalitarian romantic relationships, and the development of truly satisfying interpersonal contacts in status-conscious societies where money, buyers, and an unhealthy faith in mere rivalry and competition predominate.
Europe's best-known intellectuals composed and then presented Carpenter-- on the occasion of his 70th birthday--with a jointly-written letter expressing their profound appreciation of his lifelong accomplishments During the decadent decade following World War I, there had been public moods of frantic pessimism but, happily, Carpenter's contemporary literary giants recognized in him an antidote to the cynicism of the doomsayers. Because Edward Carpenter was practical, balanced and serene, blessed with an eloquent, elegant worldliness that humorously dispelled primitive mind-shadows while playing up the promises of the future, persons such as Radclyffe Hall and George Bernard Shaw signed this 70th birthday letter sent him. Born during 1844--the year of the first telegraph message--Carpenter's insights flared across far horizons similarly, opening communicative possibilities undreamed of in the previous century's sexually-repressed societies. I consider him to be the great-grandfather of gay and lesbian liberation. Jack Nichols, Senior Editor A Congratulatory Letter August 29, 1914 Dear Edward Carpenter:
At a time when society is confused and overburdened by its own restlessness and artificiality, your writings have called us back to the vital facts of Nature, to the need of simplicity and calmness; of just dealing between man and man; of free and equal citizenship; of love, beauty, and humanity in our daily life. We thank you for the genius with which you have interpreted great spiritual truths; for the deep conviction underlying all your teaching that wisdom must be sought not only in the study of external nature, but also in the fuller knowledge of the human heart; for your insistence upon the truth that there can be no real wealth or happiness for the individual apart from the welfare of his fellows; for your fidelity and countless services to the cause of the poor and friendless; for the light you have thrown on so many social problems; and for the equal courage, delicacy, and directness with which you have discussed various questions of sex, the study of which is essential to a right understanding of human nature. We have spoken of your many readers and friends, but in your case, to a degree seldom attained by writers, your readers are your friends, for your works have that rare quality which reveals "the man behind the book," and that personal attraction that results only from the widest sympathy and fellow-feeling. For this, most of all, we thank you—the spirit of comradeship which has endeared your name to all who know you, and to many who to yourself are unknown. |
© 1997-99 BEI