Ignatius L. Donnelly
Ignatius L. Donnelly | |
---|---|
Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota | |
In office January 2, 1860 – March 4, 1863 | |
Governor | Alexander Ramsey |
Preceded by | William Holcombe |
Succeeded by | Henry Adoniram Swift |
Personal details | |
Born | Ignatius Loyola Donnelly November 3, 1831 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | January 1, 1901 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. | (aged 69)
Political party | Democratic (before 1857, 1884-1887) Republican (1857-1884) Independent (1887-1892) People's (1892–1901) |
Spouses |
|
Children | 3 |
Profession | Attorney Author |
Signature | |
Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was an American
Life and career
Donnelly was the son of Philip Carrol Donnelly, an immigrant from
Catherine provided for her children by operating a pawn shop. Ignatius, her youngest son, was admitted to the prestigious Central High School, the second oldest public high school in the United States. There he studied under the presidency of John S. Hart, excelling primarily in literature.
Donnelly decided to become a lawyer and became a clerk for
Donnelly moved to the
His wife Katherine died in 1894. In 1898, he married his secretary, Marian Hanson.
Donnelly died on January 1, 1901, in
Political and literary career
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2020) |
Donnelly entered politics, this time as a
In 1877, Donnelly spoke at a meeting of 10,000 people where he read his preamble to the conference platform. The document of 12 short paragraphs, as altered slightly for the party's first nominating convention in Omaha that July, was the pithiest and soon became the most widely circulated statement of the Populist credo.[5] Donnelly talked about the corruption of politics and voting, newspapers giving out false and biased material, and how the Populists needed to take back the country that was their own.
In 1882, he published
A year after Atlantis, he published Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel, in which he expounded his belief that the Flood, as well as the destruction of Atlantis and the extinction of the mammoth, had been brought about by the near-collision of the earth with a massive comet. This book also sold well, and both books seem to have had an important influence on the development of Immanuel Velikovsky's controversial ideas half a century later.
In 1888, he published The Great Cryptogram in which he proposed that
Donnelly also made several other campaigns for public office during the 1880s. He made a losing campaign for Congress, this time as a Democrat, in 1884. In 1887, he successfully campaigned for a seat in the Minnesota State Legislature as an independent. During this period, he was also an organizer of the Minnesota Farmers' Alliance.
In 1892, Donnelly wrote the preamble of the
The People's Party protested the railroad companies corrupting government and advocated government regulation of the railroads. Donnelly had a key leadership role in this party, yet he received $10,000 from the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad Company.[7]
State park
During the 1930s, an organization was formed to lobby for the creation of a state park at Donnelly's home at Nininger near Hastings, Minnesota. The house was still standing in 1939, but the effort failed and the house has since been demolished.[8]
Reception
Donnelly's writings on Atlantis have been rejected by scholars and scientists.[9] He has been described as a crank and pseudoscience promoter.[10][11]
Gordon Stein has noted that "most of what Donnelly said was highly questionable or downright wrong."[12]
Works
His books include:
- The Mourner's Vision: A Poem (1850), a long poem he wrote at the age of 18.
- Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882), in which he attempted to establish that all known ancient civilizations were descended from its high-Neolithic culture.
- Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel (1883), in which he proposed that a comet hit the earth in prehistoric times and destroyed a high civilization.
- The Shakespeare Myth (1887)
- Essay on the Sonnets of Shakespeare
- The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in Shakespeare's Plays (1888), in which he maintained he had discovered codes in the works of Francis Bacon.
- Caesar's Column (1890), a science fiction novel set during 1988 about a worker revolt against a global oligarchy. (Published under the pseudonym of Edmund Boisgilbert.)
- Doctor Huguet: A Novel (1891) (Published under the pseudonym of Edmund Boisgilbert.)
- The Golden Bottle or the Story of Ephraim Benezet of Kansas (1892)
- The Bryan Campaign for the American People's Money (1896)
- The Cipher in the Plays, and on the Tombstone (1899)
References
- ISBN 9780820319186.
- ^ MnPALS Union Catalog – Basic Search at www.mnpals.net
- OCLC 900344655. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
The radical Ignatius Donnelly and other spoke in support of the bill.
- ^ "Donnelly, Ignatius". Legislators, Past and Present. Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
- ISBN 978-0801485589.
- ^ Donnelly, Ignatius (1882). Atlantis: the antediluvian world. Robarts - University of Toronto. New York : Harper & Brothers.
- ^ Lens, Sidney. The Labor Wars: From the Molly Maguires to the Sitdowns. Doubleday & Co.: NY, 1973. 365 pp., p. 36.
- ^ A personal reminiscence of a visit to Nininger during the 1930s is available at the Internet Sacred Text Archive|Sacred-Texts website.
- ISBN 1-57607-654-7
- ISBN 0-486-20394-8
- ISBN 978-0760766002
- ISBN 0-8103-8414-0
Sources
- Bovee, John (1969). 'Doctor Huguet: Donnelly on Being Black', Minnesota History, vol. 41 (no. 6), pp. 286–94.
- Elizebeth Friedman, The Shakespearean ciphers examined, Cambridge University Press, 1957. Chapter III.
- Hicks, JD (1921). 'The Political Career of Ignatius Donnelly', Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 8, pp. 80–132.
- Ridge, M (1962). Ignatius Donnelly: The Portrait of a Politician, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, reprinted 1991 by Minnesota Historical Society Press.
- United States Congress. "DONNELLY, Ignatius (id: D000417)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
External links
- Ignatius Donnelly: Paranoid progressive in the Gilded Age
- Ignatius Donnelly in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
- The Ignatius Donnelly and Family Papers are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society
- Works by Ignatius Donnelly at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Ignatius L. Donnelly at Internet Archive
- Works by Ignatius L. Donnelly at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Donnelly's influence on 19th-Century Australia
- Ignatius Donnelly at Library of Congress, with 15 library catalog records
- Ignatius L. Donnelly at Find a Grave