Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne
Through the window of the archives I glimpse the past of my family, and see new ways to connect with the present. (2008 Desire Delight Regret)
I am researching the life and work of my great-aunt Elizabeth Gibson (later Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne) 1869—1931: a poet who described herself as a feminist, socialist and freethinker. As well as the articles and talks listed below, I plan to upload further background material and selections from her writing to the Links and resources section. For more on the Gibson family, including the poet Wilfrid Gibson, see here.
2023. British poet Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne contributed to the ferment of new ideas about art, religion, poetry and politics in the early twentieth century. She was a suffragist, socialist and freethinker as well as a poet, and her social networks included artists, feminists, reformers and revolutionaries.
2023. Biographical article about Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online in July 2023.
This small selection of poems by Elizabeth Gibson (later Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne) is taken from her 1910 collection, From the Wilderness. That self-published book, with its plainer style and more overtly political themes, marks a shift in form and content from most of her previous poetry. My selection gives an insight into her personal stance ... A selection of thirty poems by Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne, written between 1904 and 1913, and selected by Judy Greenway.
Provides some basic information about Elizabeth Gibson, and links to my articles about her. As I continue to research her life and work, new material will be added.
2016. Compares the changing responses to the First World War in the writings of Wilfrid Gibson and his sister and fellow poet Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne. Revised version of article published in Dymock Poets and Friends, No 15.
A brief selection of anti-war poems plus aphorisms on violence, imperialism and oppression, written between 1904 and 1914.
2014. Committed to ‘Art for Life’s Sake’, both poets wrote about suffering, injustice and social responsibility. Similarities and differences in their beliefs show in the form and content of their work. Article from Dymock Poets & Friends, No. 13.
2012. ‘Gautama of India, Jesus of Nazareth, Emerson of Concord, Abdu’l-Bahá of Persia … one God, though called by innumerable beautiful names’, wrote Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne after meeting Abdu’l-Bahá. Talk given at the Commemorative Day celebrating the centenary of Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to Oxford.
2008. Researching an unknown relative, poet and feminist Elizabeth Gibson, raised tricky questions of methodology as well as the challenges of combining family history and academic research. Article from Qualitative Research, 2008:8.
2004. Discusses the close relationship between the sibling poets, and the influences on their artistic and political development. Article from Dymock Poets and Friends, No.3.
Anarchism and sexuality
There was no single alternative model … instead, there were debates, aspirations, experiments, compromises; failures and successes, adaptation and change. The relationship between principle and practice was never straightforward. (2009 Speaking Desire)
See below for a sample of articles and talks, including review articles that draw on my own research. There are many relevant articles in the anarchism section.
2009. Anarchists and others debate free love in theory and practice. What is the relationship between sexual freedom and social transformation?
Chapter from Laurence Davis and Ruth Kinna, eds, Anarchism and Utopianism.
2009. Anarchism, homosexuality and sexual politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Review article from Anarchist Studies, 17:1.
2003. How did ideas about free love and sexual liberation change among anarchists and libertarians between the 1880s and the 1970s? Paper given at Past and Present of Radical Sexual Politics, Amsterdam.