Anna Kingsford
Anna Kingsford | |
---|---|
Born | Anna Bonus 16 September 1846 |
Died | 22 February 1888 London, England | (aged 41)
Resting place | Saint Eata's churchyard, Atcham |
Education | Medical degree |
Alma mater | University of Paris |
Occupation(s) | Editor, The Lady's Own Paper |
Known for | Anti-vivisection, vegetarianism and women's rights activism |
Notable work | The Perfect Way in Diet |
Spouse |
Algernon Godfrey Kingsford
(m. 1867) |
Children | 1 |
Signature | |
Anna Kingsford (
She was one of the first English women to obtain a degree in medicine, after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, and the only medical student at the time to graduate without having experimented on a single animal. She pursued her degree in Paris, graduating in 1880 after six years of study, so that she could continue her animal advocacy from a position of authority. Her final thesis, L'Alimentation Végétale de l'Homme, was on the benefits of vegetarianism, published in English as The Perfect Way in Diet (1881).[2] She founded the Food Reform Society that year, travelling within the UK to talk about vegetarianism, and to Paris, Geneva, and Lausanne to speak out against animal experimentation.[1]
Kingsford was interested in
Early life
Kingsford was born in Maryland Point, Stratford, now part of east London but then in Essex, to John Bonus, a wealthy merchant, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Schröder.[5] Her brother John Bonus (1828–1909) was a physician and vegetarian.[6] Her brothers Henry (1830–1903) and Albert (1831–1884) worked for their father's shipping business. Her brother Edward (1834–1908) became rector of Hulcott in Buckinghamshire and her brother Joseph (1836–1926) was a major general.[6] Her brother Charles William Bonus (18/05/1839 – 21/11/1883) was an underwriter.[7][8]
By all accounts a precocious child, she wrote her first poem when she was nine, and Beatrice: a Tale of the Early Christians when she was thirteen years old. Deborah Rudacille writes that Kingsford enjoyed
She married her cousin, Algernon Godfrey Kingsford in 1867 when she was 21, giving birth to a daughter, Eadith, a year later. Though her husband was an
In her 1868 Essay calling for female equality[12] she uses the pen name ‘Ninon’ and in that article references Ninon de l'Enclos (1620–1705) a French woman known for her wit, beauty, intelligence and independence. The name however may be a nod to her new status as ‘Mrs Algernon’. In a letter to Maitland in August 1873, also, signed as ‘Ninon’ she says, "much, you know is permitted to men which to women is forbidden. For this reason I usually write under some assumed name"[13]
Kingsford contributed articles to the magazine Penny Post from 1868 to 1873.[14] Having been left £700 a year by her father, she bought in 1872 The Lady's Own Paper, and took up work as its editor, which brought her into contact with some prominent women of the day, including the writer, feminist, and anti-vivisectionist Frances Power Cobbe. It was an article by Cobbe on vivisection in The Lady's Own Paper that sparked Kingsford's interest in the subject.[9]
Studies and research
In 1873, Kingsford met the writer Edward Maitland, a widower, who shared her rejection of
Walter Gratzer, professor emeritus of biochemistry at
Things are not going well for me. My chef at the Charité strongly disapproves of women students and took this means of showing it. About a hundred men (no women except myself) went round the wards today, and when we were all assembled before him to have our names written down, he called and named all the students except me, and then closed the book. I stood forward upon this, and said quietly, "Et moi aussi, monsieur." [And me, Sir.] He turned on me sharply, and cried, "Vous, vous n'êtes ni homme ni femme; je ne veux pas inscrire votre nom." [You, you are neither man nor woman; I don't want to write your name.] I stood silent in the midst of a dead silence."[15]
Kingsford was distraught over the sights and sounds of the animal experiments she saw. She wrote on 20 August 1879:
I have found my Hell here in the Faculté de Médecine of Paris, a Hell more real and awful than any I have yet met with elsewhere, and one that fulfills all the dreams of the mediaeval monks. The idea that it was so came strongly upon me one day when I was sitting in the Musée of the school, with my head in my hands, trying vainly to shut out of my ears the piteous shrieks and cries which floated incessantly towards me up the private staircase ... Every now and then, as a scream more heart-rending than the rest reached me, the moisture burst out on my forehead and on the palms of my hands, and I prayed, "Oh God, take me out of this Hell; do not suffer me to remain in this awful place."[15]
Kingsford adopted a vegetarian diet on the advice of her brother John Bonus.[18] She was a vice-president of the Vegetarian Society.[19]
Death
Alan Pert, one of her biographers, wrote that Kingsford was caught in torrential rain in Paris in November 1886 on her way to the laboratory of
She died on 22 February 1888, aged 41, and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Eata's, an 11th-century church in Atcham by the River Severn, her husband's church.[21] Her name at death is recorded as Annie Kingsford. On her marriage in Sussex in 1867, her name was given as Annie Bonus.[23]
Works
Books
- Beatrice; A Tale of the Early Christians, Joseph Masters &Son, 1863 [24]
- An essay on the admission of women to the parliamentary franchise. Ninon Kingsford, Trubner &Co 1868 [25]
- River Reeds (volume of verse), 1866.[14]
- Rosamunda the princess, and other tales. James Parker & Co., 1875.
- Kingsford, A. & Maitland, E. The Key of the Creeds. Trubner, 1875.
- Astrology Theologised, 1886.[14]
- Health, Beauty and the Toilet: Letters to Ladies from a Lady Doctor. F. Warne, 1886.
- Dreams and Dream Stories. 1888.
- Clothed with the Sun. J. M. Watkins, 1912.
- The Credo of Christendom and other Addresses and Essays on Esoteric Christianity Archived 22 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. 1916.
- The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ. Watkins, 1909.
- The Perfect Way in Diet. Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1881.
- Kingsford, A. & Maitland, E. Addresses & Essays On Vegetarianism. John M Watkins, 1912.
Chapters
- "Unscientific science—moral aspects of vivisection" in Colville, W. J. Spiritual Therapeutics Or Divine Science. 1890, pp. 292–308.
- "The Uselessness of Vivisection," 1882, in Hamilton, Susan. (ed.) Animal Welfare & Anti-vivisection 1870–1910: Nineteenth Century Woman's Mission. Taylor & Francis, 2004.
- "The City of Blood" in Forward, Stephanie. (ed.) Dreams, Visions and Realities. Continuum International, 2003.
Article
"A cast for a fortune - The holiday adventures of a Lady Doctor’" December 1877 Temple Bar magazine [26]
See also
- Brown Dog affair
- Ecofeminism
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- Isabelle de Steiger
- List of animal rights advocates
- Louise Lind-af-Hageby
- Theosophy and Christianity
References
- ^ a b c Rappaport, Helen. "Kingsford, Anna," Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers, 2001.
- For Maitland's biography, see Maitland, Edward. The Life of Anna Kingsford. Kessinger Publishing, 2003 [first published 1896]; also available here Archived 12 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Rudacille, pp. 31, 46
- ^ Christof, Catharine. "Feminist Action in and through Tarot and Modern Occult Society: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, UK and The Builders of the Adytum, USA". La Rosa Di Paracelso, 2017.
- ^ Kingsford, Anna Bonus. Clothed with the Sun Archived 14 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine. John M. Watkins, 1889
- ^ Maitland 1896, p. 1.
- ^ ISBN 978-1740184052
- ^ Waddell, R E. "The Bonus family tree". Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ Waddell, R E. "Probate record of Charles Bonus and his wife" (PDF). Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ a b Rudacille, pp. 33–34
- ^ Burgess, Jennifer. "Biography", Victorian Web, accessed 30 March 2008.
- ^ Maitland, Edward. The Story of Anna Kingsford, 1905, pp. 2–5.
- ^ Kingsford, Ninon (1868). "Works of Anna Kingsford". Annakingsford.com. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
- ^ Maitland, Edward (1913). "Anna Kingsford. Her life, letters, diary and work. Chapter II". Annakingsford.com. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
- ^ ISBN 0-903802-37-6.
- ^ a b c Rudacille, p. 35.
- ^ a b Gratzer, Walter. Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 224.
- ^ Rudacille, p. 19.
- ^ Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: Ideal Publishing Union. p. 122
- ISBN 978-0-7748-2109-4
- ^ "Anna Kingsford's grave", Anna Kingsford website, retrieved 31 March 2008.
- ^ a b Pert, Alan. "Last Years", Red Cactus: The Life of Anna Kingsford, accessed 30 April 2011.
- Pert, Alan. The Life of Anna Kingsford, 2006, pp. 156–169.
- ^ Images of the house at 15 Wynnstay Gardens Archived 30 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Anna Kingsford website, retrieved 31 March 2008.
- ^ Public record office marriage and death registers, Kew, London.
- ^ "Annakingsford.com". Retrieved 13 January 2024.
- ^ "Works by Anna Kingsford, Annakingsford.com". Annakingsford.com. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
- ^ Moulds, Alison (2021). "Victorian Popular fiction" (PDF). Retrieved 12 January 2024.
Bibliography
- Rudacille, Deborah (2000). The Scalpel and the Butterfly. University of California Press. ISBN 0520231546.
Further reading
- Anna Kingsford website
- "History of Vegetarianism – Anna Kingsford M.D. (1846–1888)" (International Vegetarian Union).
- "Theosophy and Mysticism – Anna Kingsford" (Mysterious People)
- Maitland, Edward. The story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of the New Gospel of interpretation. Watkins, 1905.
- Pert, Alan. Red Cactus: The Life of Anna Kingsford. Alan Pert, 2006.
- Shirley, Ralph. Occultists & mystics of all ages. W. Rider & son, 1920.
External links
- Works by Anna Kingsford at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Anna Kingsford at Internet Archive
- Works by Anna Kingsford at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)