File 8 - Correspondence with Annie Besant

29 items; Manuscript

Letters to James Pearse from Annie Besant, Freethought Publishing Company, 63 Fleet Street, and Oatlands, Mortimer Road, St. John’s Wood, London. The letters refer to Pearse’s efforts to have his article published by the Freethought Publishing Company. Many of the letters relate to Pearse’s account with the publishing company and to progress of sales of the publication. Besant’s letter of 29 January 1883 states that Pearse can dedicate his article to Charles Bradlaugh. The letter (13 March 1883) reads ‘I send you the MS of “Heaven”, the printer having found it after considerable trouble. The other MS has disappeared in the bottomless pit of used copy’. Other letters suggest the titles of Pearse’s work are ‘Thoughts or Heaven’ and ‘House of Commons’. In a letter from Pearse to Besant (25 May 1884), he expresses his wish to use the word ‘Humanitas’ rather than his name in any published report. A letter (4 October 1884) from Besant reads ‘your pamphlet, issued anonymously would not sell in large numbers, and you would certainly lose. Further, Socialism is not a selling subject. Even Mr. Bradlaugh’s pamphlet against [it] … have not sold so largely as the other issues of the same series by the same writers’.

For biographical information on Annie Besant (1847-1933) see https://heritage.humanists.uk/annie-besant/