Iolaus: An Anthology of Friendship

by Edward Carpenter (Editor)

"If any one should importune me to give a reason why I loved him [Stephen de la Boëtie] I feel it could no otherwise be expressed than by making answer, 'Because it was he; because it was I.'" -from "Montaigne on Friendship" Socialist advocate, progressive educator, and amateur mystic, Edward Carpenter is perhaps best remembered today for his conflicted homosexuality, and his name remains a rallying point of gay communities in Britain. This circumspect 1902 work draws on and quotes from a panoply of impressive sources, from the Iliad and Tacitus's military commentary to Saint Augustine and Herman Melville's account of his 1841-5 journey through the Pacific Islands, to explore the idea of "friendship"-that is, male homosexuality-in cultures around the planet and throughout history. This lovely book is a poignant reminder of a more cautious time. British activist and writer EDWARD CARPENTER (1844-1929) produced books and pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects; his works include Prisons, Police, and Punishment (1905) and The Religious Influence of Art (1870). He is best known for his epic poem cycle, Towards Democracy (1883).

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction, History, Anthologies

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist.

A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J. K. Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.[1]

As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.

A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster.

Reviews

[Andrew H · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways, a repeat of prevailing Victorian attitudes, but Carpenter widens the scope to create a political treatise.

[Flavio Miguel Pereira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry and essays of friendship as a plus protected through the last century and with a need to be re-read from time to time to understand why friendship can be so important

[River Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in the early 20th century, Ioläus is a collage detailing the history of queer relationships as manifested through shifting accounts of “friendship”, as defined in antiquity and slowly held onto through the spread of Christianity.

Drawing from both historical narratives and epistolary sources, the author Edward Carpenter (whose relationship with George Merrill served as the inspiration for the book Maurice) draws threads through the past to show examples of queer traditions that have, both deliberately and through the fading of cultural memory, been forgotten.

Translations, extracts, poems, and letters from history, stretching back to Ancient Greece to the 19th century, are woven together to build a beating heart that persists in the knowledge of what it knows to be true; that whatever words may be used and whatever customs may persist, there is an intimacy and a substance to these friendships whose meaning is lost in treating the label as preclusive of deep, romantic love.

There is surprisingly little editorial work or commentary offered, with the particular order of the sampled material doing a good job of letting the reader follow the path of these queer people who are in one sense alone but who, in finding companions, are joining in an ancestry deeper than even they recognise.

Individual stories will resonate differently. Hæckel’s encounters in Ceylon and the story of Ludwig II stuck out to me, but the nature of this as as series of historical anecdotes will make this a “you’ll get out something I didn’t” experience.

Historical societies of course weren’t perfect, and I’m sure if you interrogate some of the early chapters the relationships depicted wouldn’t hold up to what I’d call contemporary scrutiny, but as a historical document it has a powerful impact.

We have always been here.

[Liam Ostermann]

This book was one of many that were seized in 1984 from the first gay bookshop in London, or anywhere in the UK, Gay's The Word as part of a policy of intimidation against 'uppity' gays and I am posting information on this event against many of the books seized by the police.

That it was a book originally published in the UK in 1902 makes the seizure of this American edition an obvious act of bullying intimidation.

This is a history that should not be forgotten.

Iolaus and the 1984 attempt to destroy 'Gay's The Word' the UK's first gay bookshop:

This novel was one of many 'imported' gay books which were at the centre of an infamous attempt to push UK gays back into the closet by the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Amazingly this event, important not only for gays but civil liberties in the UK, does not have any kind of Wikipedia entry. Because of this lack I have assembled links to a number of sites which anyone interested in free speech should read. If we don't remember our history we will be condemned to repeat it.

The genesis of the prosecution of 'Gays The Word' was the anger of homophobes to books like 'The Milkman's On His Way' by David Rees which were written for young people and presented being gay as ordinary and nothing to get your-knickers-in-a-twist over. Unfortunately there was no way to ban the offending books because censorship of literature had been laughed out of court at the 'Lady Chatterley Trial' nearly twenty years earlier. But Customs and Excise did have the ability to seize and forbid the import of 'foreign' books, those not published in the UK. As most 'gay' books came from abroad, specifically the USA, this anomaly was the basis for the raid on Gays The Word and the seizure of large amounts of stock. The intention was that the legal costs, plus the disruption to the business, would sink this small independent bookshop long before it came to trial. That it didn't is testimony to the resilience of Gay's The Word, the gay community and all those who supported them.

The best, not perfect, but only, guide to the event is at:

https://www.gayinthe80s.com/2012/10/1...

There follows a series of links to the event connected with an exhibition at the University of London:

The background:

https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...

The 142 books seized:

https://exhibitions.london.ac.uk/s/se...

The history of the prosecution:

https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...

The fight to clarify the law after the prosecution was dropped:

https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...