THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY
- freely available on this site
Webb, Beatrice ___ 1858-1943 ___ British
___ reformer, writer
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Beatrice, the eighth daughter of
industrialist Richard Potter and Laurencina Heyworth, was born in Gloucestershire.
Although she enjoyed little formal schooling she read widely and talked
to her father's visitors, one of whom was Herbert Spencer. A liaison with
the statesman Joseph Chamberlain, who was much older than she, failed to
develop, and when it broke down, she joined a charity to help those living
in poverty. For a while she worked as a researcher for her cousin Charles
Booth, a social reformer. In 1891, she published a small book, 'The Co-operative
Movement in Great Britain', which later became a classic. While working
on the book she met Sidney Webb, and they married in 1892. Beatrice's inheritance
of a £1,000 a year enabled Sidney to give up his civil service job.
They set up house in London together, and subsequently wrote a number of
important books such as 'The History of Trade Unionism' and 'Industrial
Democracy'. In 1894, the Fabian Society, in which the Webbs were important
figures, was left £10,000, which they used to help found The London
School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1895. In 1898, the Webbs
travelled to North America, Australia and New Zealand; thereafter, they
spent many years researching and publishing 11 volumes of 'English Local
Government'. In 1900, the Fabian Society joined with other parties to form
the Labour Representation Committee, which won two seats in the House of
Commons. The Webbs were responsible for drafting the 1902 Education Act;
and Beatrice served as a member of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws,
producing an important minority report. In 1913, they launched the 'New
Statesman' magazine, and, a year later, they joined the Labour Party. Sydney,
in particular, rose to high office. When he was made Baron Passfield, Beatrice
refused the title Lady Passfield. In the 1930s, after their retirement to
Hampshire, they visited the USSR, and then spent three years writing 'Soviet
Communism: a new Civilisation?'.
One
biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1873-1943 ___ political social
travel people education US India Russia Australia
WEB TEXT LINKS
short
extracts
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
London
School of Economics Library, Archives Division
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diaries of Beatrice Webb
The Diary of Beatrice Webb
May 2005
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please
email if you have any corrections, additions or comments. |
IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information
may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different
names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or
uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown,
or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British'
a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was
compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts
were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if
they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates
and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with
caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are
only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies.
4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges,
and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising.
I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some
variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited
myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their
original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the
titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries. |