Iolaus - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1410107965 ISBN 13: 9781410107961

Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL), 2004

Synopsis

A homoerotic anthology of verse, prose, and letters celebrating male friendship from Byron, Shelley, Whitman, Ludwig II, Aristotle, the story of St. Augustine, the story of Amis And Amile, Rumi, Montaigne, Dyer, Barnfield, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Whitman. and many more. Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) selected the title Iolaus to honor the boy charioteer and lover of Hercules. He compiled many of the pieces which comprise modern gay political theory. Originally published in 1902 to silently argue, by the presentation of literary masterpieces of all centuries, for the acceptance of homosexuality.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:

"Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, anthologist, early homosexual activist, and socialist philosopher.

A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J K Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.

As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud, and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis, and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.

A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D H Lawrence and E M Forster.

He was also the first person to introduce the wearing of sandals into Britain." (Quote from wikipedia.org)

Edition details

• Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL)
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1410107965
• ISBN 13: 9781410107961
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 244
• Editor: Carpenter Edward