Charlotte Wilson

For other people named Charlotte Wilson, seeCharlotte Wilson (disambiguation).

Charlotte M. Wilson
Wilson at Newnham College c.1874
Born	Charlotte Mary Martin (1854-05-06)6 May 1854 Kemerton,Worcestershire,England
Died	6 May 1944(1944-05-06)(aged 90) Irvington-on-Hudson,New York,United States
Nationality	English
Other names	C.M. Wilson, Mrs Arthur Wilson, Charlotte Mary Wilson and Charlotte Martin Wilson
Alma mater	Newnham College, Cambridge
Years active	1884–1914
Known for	Freedomnewspaper
Notable work	What socialism is (Fabian Tract 4) Women and Prisons (Fabian Tract 163)

Charlotte Mary Wilson(6 May 1854,Kemerton,Worcestershire– 28 April 1944,Irvington-on-Hudson,New York) was an EnglishFabianandanarchistwho co-foundedFreedomnewspaper in 1886 withPeter Kropotkin,and edited, published, and largely financed it during its first decade. She remained editor ofFreedomuntil 1895.

Life and work

Born Charlotte Mary Martin, she was the daughter of a well-to-do physician, Robert Spencer Martin. She was educated atNewnham College, Cambridge.She married Arthur Wilson, a stockbroker, and the couple moved to London. Charlotte Wilson joined theFabian Societyin 1884 and soon joined its executive committee.

At the same time she founded an informal political study group for 'advanced' thinkers, known as theHampstead Historic Club(also known as the Karl Marx Society or The Proudhon Society). This met in her early 17th century former farmhouse, calledWyldes,on the edge of Hampstead Heath.No records of the club survive but there are references to it in the memoirs of several of those who attended. In her history of Wyldes Mrs Wilson records the names of some of those who visited the house, most of whom are known to have been present at club meetings.They includedSidney Webb,George Bernard Shaw,Sydney Olivier,Annie Besant,Graham Wallas,Belfort Bax,Edward Pease,E. Nesbit,Hubert Bland,Karl Pearson,Havelock Ellis,Edward Carpenter,Frank Podmore,Ford Madox Brown,andOlive Schreineramong others. The secretary wasEmma Brooke.

The club first turned its attention to studyingDas Kapitalread out by a Russian woman in French, and later turned toProudhon.In 1889George Bernard Shawdescribed the Club discussions and how heated they became.Although the Fabian Society andHampstead Historic Clubcontained many of the same people, they remained separate. The ideas debated by the club resulted in the publication ofFabian Essays in Socialismin 1889. This led Shaw to describe Hampstead, and the meetings, as 'the birthplace of middleclass socialism.'

Another visitor to the house wasStepniakwho, with Mrs Wilson, Karl Pearson andWilfrid Voynich,established an informal society that was later formalised asThe Society of Friends of Russian Freedom.Mrs Wilson is believed to be the model for Gemma in the best-selling novelThe GadflybyEthel Voynich;while a description of Mrs Wilson's faux farm kitchen where the club met was given byE. Nesbit.

An active campaigner she spoke at socialist rallies, including that in Trafalgar Square on 13 November 1887, known asBloody Sunday,which police broke up violently.

In 1886, parliamentarians within the Fabian Society proposed that it organize as a political party;William Morrisand Wilson opposed the motion, but were defeated. She subsequently resigned from the society in April 1887, continuing her association with the anarchists from the society.

She wrote extensively toKarl Pearsonabout Anarchism, the Fabians, theKarl Marx Societyand about her "Russian Society"from 1884 to 1896.

In 1886, Wilson and Kropotkin co-foundedFreedom,an anarchist newspaper that shared William Morris's press with which he printedCommonweal;Wilson remained its editor until 1895.The newspaper's mission statement is stated in every issue, on page 2, and summarises the writers' view of anarchism.

Anarchists work towards a society ofmutual aidand voluntary co-operation. We reject allgovernmentandeconomic repression.This newspaper, published continuously since 1936, exists to explain anarchism more widely and show that only in an anarchist society can human freedom thrive.

Her publicationWork(1888) was mistakenly attributed to Kropotkin for many years.

In 2000Freedom Pressreleased a book consisting of a collection of her essays, edited byNicolas Walter.

Although never disavowing the Anarchist ideology she distanced herself from the movement in the early years of the twentieth century. She rejoined the Fabian Society in 1907, and founded its Women's Group in 1908 joining the campaign for female suffrage. She remained a very prominent member of the Fabian Women's Group in its early years as she served as its General Secretary (1908–1913) and Secretary of the Studies Subcommittee (1908–1913) where she heavily influenced the direction of the group's studies into working conditions for women.She would also rejoin the Fabian Executive between 1911 and 1914.

References

• Charlotte Wilson, Nicholas Walter (Ed.) (2000).Anarchist Essays.Freedom Press.ISBN0-900384-99-9
• John Quail (1978).The Slow Burning Fuse: The Lost History of the British Anarchists.Flamingo.ISBN0-586-08225-5
• Parish Records,Kemerton, Gloucestershire.
• Edward R.Pease (1916). "The History of the Fabian Society". A.C.Fifield.

External links

• A History of Freedom Press
• Charlotte Wilson: Edited Works, Organized by WorkArchived25 February 2021 at theWayback Machine
• Charlotte Wilson: Edited Works, Organized by Date