News
Professor Carol Mackay edits new book, "Autobiographical Sketches" by Annie Besant
(Broadview Press, 2009)
Synopsis
Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933) was a problematic and notorious figure
in Victorian England, questioning and then breaking from the Anglican
Church to become an atheist, women's rights advocate, and Freethinker.
As editor of her own journal, Our Corner,
she responded to inquiries about her life experiences by serializing
her life story, which was published in 1885. After providing a vivid
account of her trial, along with Charles Bradlaugh, for the right to
publish birth control literature, Besant recounts her heartbreaking
trial for custody of her daughter.
With a critical and historical introduction by Carol Hanbery MacKay, this Broadview Edition includes comparative passages from An Autobiography, written in 1893 after Besant's conversion to Theosophy. Contemporary reviews, excerpts from publications about issues such as Socialism and
trade unionism, and additional examples of Besant's writing about
secularism and labour reform are also included.
Reviews
"This important edition brings Annie Besant's first autobiographical
work back into print. Written before her conversion to Theosophy, Autobiographical Sketches
details Besant's remarkable spiritual and political transformation from
wife of a Christian clergyman to celebrated campaigner for Freethought,
secularism, women's rights, and birth control. Carol Hanbery MacKay's
splendid introduction and supplementary materials offer an illuminating
context for students and scholars alike. Altogether, the volume is a
major contribution to the literature of feminism, autobiography,
religion, and radical politics." - Elizabeth Miller, University of
California Davis
"'Naughty Annie' (as the press called her) has been ill served by
biographers and critics. This meticulous edition of her fascinating
first foray into autobiography–before her extraordinary but
quintessentially Victorian passage from secularism and Socialism to
Theosophy and India–not only allows her to speak again for herself as a
woman and a public figure, but, through the rich array of reviews,
speeches, essays, and extended passages from her later Autobiography,
also allows us to understand her against the full backdrop of her life
and the times she helped to change." - Joss Marsh, University of Indiana
Carol Hanbery MacKay is Distinguished Teaching Professor of English and Affiliate of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.