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Dora Marsden Collection
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Dora Marsden (1882-1960) was a writer, editor, and British suffragette in the early 20th century. After graduating from Owens College in 1903, she worked as a teacher and later became the headmistress of Altrincham Teacher-Pupil Center. At this time, she was also becoming more active in the British Women's Rights Movement. After several arrests in 1909, Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst offered Marsden a position in their organization, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), which used civil disobedience and militant tactics to campaign for white, middle-class women's right to vote in England.
Marsden resigned from the WSPU in 1911 due to political and philosophical disagreements and, later that year, founded the Freewoman with her co-editor Mary Gawthorpe to critique WSPU for its militant campaigns and lack of interest in the rights of working class women. Her periodical also discussed other controversial topics of the time, such as birth control, homosexuality, free love, and wages for housework and mothering. The Freewoman publication ended due to a lack of financial resources in 1912 after Gawthrope resigned and its publisher, W. H. Smith and Son's, withdrew support. Marsden revived the journal in 1913 as The New Freewoman and then again in 1914 as The Egoist, which ran until 1919. In these publications, she shifted her perspective from a radical feminist one to a humanist view with an interest in literary experimentalism.
Consists of papers of Marsden, including correspondence relating to her books, The Definition of the Godhead, The Mysteries of Christianity, and The Philosophy of the Time, and the three periodicals she edited, The Freewoman, The New Freewoman, and The Egoist. Contained in the collection are manuscripts sent to the periodicals, although the bulk of this material appeared in The Freewoman. There is also correspondence between feminists, such as Harriet Shaw Weaver, Mary Gawthorpe, and Grace Jardine, and an exchange of letters among leading suffragettes, including Emmeline and Cristabel Pankhurst of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
In January of 1911, Marsden left WSPU and founded The Freewoman to express her more radical feminist views. When the publisher of The Freewoman went bankrupt, the editors reorganized their periodical to form The New Freewoman, continuing their feminist philosophy, but within six months of its publication, encouraged by Ezra Pound, the magazine became The Egoist and reflected a greater interest in literature and literary subjects. Included is a fragment of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which appeared in serial form in The Egoist.
A special section of the collection groups together correspondence of well-known literary contemporaries of Marsden, such as Rebecca West, H. G. Wells, Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence, Storm Jameson, and others. Many of Storm Jameson's letters in the correspondence relate to The Definition of the Godhead.
Purchased in 1986.
No appraisal information is available.
Organization
Subject
- Authors, English -- 20th century
- Critics -- England -- 20th century
- Editors -- England -- 20th century
- Feminists -- England -- 20th century
- Feminism -- England -- 20th century
- Novelists, American -- 20th century
- Novelists, English -- 20th century
- Novelists, Irish -- 20th century
- Poets, American -- 20th century
- Poets, English -- 20th century
- Periodicals -- Publishing -- England -- 20th century
- Suffragettes -- England -- 20th century
- Suffrage -- England -- 20th century
- Women -- Suffrage -- England -- 20th century
- Women's rights -- England -- 20th century
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2000
- Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
-
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
Collection Inventory
Consists of the works of Dora Marsden, including The Definition of the Godhead, The Mystery of Christianity, and The Philosophy of Time. Contains correspondence, documents, printed matter, and circulation lists for each of these works.
Arranged alphabetically by title.
Physical Description1 box
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Consists of correspondence with literary contemporaries as well as "Josephine" letters and correspondence related to Women's Suffrage. Notable correspondents include Richard Aldington, Sylvia Beach, Havelock Ellis, Theodore Dreiser, Ezra Pound, and Upton Sinclair.
This series is arranged into three subseries: Literary Correspondence, "Josephine" Letters, and Women's Suffrage.
Physical Description2 boxes
Consists of correspondence with literary contemporaries. Notable correspondents include Richard Aldington, Sylvia Beach, Havelock Ellis, Theodore Dreiser, Ezra Pound, and Upton Sinclair.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.
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Consists of correspondence related to "Josephine."
Not arranged according to any arrangement scheme.
Physical Description1 box
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Consists of correspondence related to Women's Suffrage, including the Women's Social and Political Union and others, as well as correspondence between Harriet Shaw Weaver, Mary Gawthorpe, and Grace Jardine.
Arranged by genre of correspondece.
Physical Description2 boxes
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Consists of manuscripts and correspondence related to the periodicals edited by Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, The New Freewoman, and The Egoist.
This series is arranged into three subseries: The Freewoman, The New Freewoman, and The Egoist.
Physical Description3 boxes
Consists of manuscripts and correspondence related to The Freewoman, including works such as "The Signing of the Will" by E. S. P. Haynes and "An Exhausted Idea" by Dora Marsden, as well as others.
Not arranged according to any arrangement scheme.
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Consists of correspondence and manuscripts related to The New Freewoman, including the manuscript for "Lego et Penso" by Benjamin Tucker.
Arranged by genre of material.
Physical Description1 box
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Consists of correspondence and a manuscript for a portion of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, which appeared in The Egoist.
Arranged by genre of material.
Physical Description1 box
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Consists of miscellaneous correspondence and manuscripts, including "With Apologies to Caliban" ("To D. M.", 1914) by Harriet Shaw Weaver.
Arranged by genre of material.
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