Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects.
Grand “Dame” Of Political Economy
Fawcett, Millicent Garrett, and Henry Fawcett. Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects. London: Macmillan and Co., 1872.
8vo.; purple-ink stamp on title page (“Lilly Library Association, Florence, Mass.”); printed library label on front pastedown; brown cloth, stamped in gilt and black; library label remnant on spine; extremities frayed.
First edition of this collaboration between husband and wife, composed of various essays and lectures regarding economics, politics and education. Millicent contributed eight essays (to which her husband added six), and edited the entire volume. Three of Henry’s lectures, and two of Millicent’s—“Why Women Require the Suffrage,” and “The Education of Women”—had not previously been published. The others had appeared in contemporary periodicals.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929) was born in England, the seventh of ten children to Newson and Louisa Dunnell Garrett. Her mother taught her, as tradition encouraged, the womanly arts of sewing and needlepoint; her father, a forward-thinking man for the times, emphasized the value of scholarly education for Fawcett and her sisters. All of the Garrett girls were placed under the tutelage of Louisa Browning, with whom Fawcett studied until age 16. In 1867, after her marriage to Henry Fawcett, Millicent worked as his secretary, typing political documents for him. The most notable of these were successive editions of his 1863 Manual of Political Economy; the exposure to such scholarship spurred Fawcett to write her own theories of political thought, and in 1870 her successful Economy for Beginners was published. This publication set the ball rolling for Millicent’s lifelong commitment to seeking reform in women’s issues, specifically as an advocate for the importance of women’s education. Indeed, in addition to the two essays named above, Fawcett includes the following in this volume: “The Schools’ Inquiry Commissioners on the Education of Girls,” “The Electoral Disabilities of Women,” and “Why Women Require the Franchise.” Her political essays which address women less directly are “Free Education in its Economic Aspects…,” “National Debts and National Prosperity,” and “An American on Representation.” None of her husband’s essays printed herein address women in their title, though they are clearly considered to be among his readership.
(#7904)
Print Inquire
