My Commonplace Book.
Cobden-Unwin at Home
Cobden-Unwin, Jane, or Emma Jane. [Spine title:] My Commonplace Book J.C.U. 1893. Ca. 1850s-1939.
8vo.; approximately 77 leaves; manuscript jottings, notes, poetry, etc.; clippings and other printed matter; a few photographs; 30 blank leaves; half morocco, worn, hinges cracked; all edges gilt.
Emma Jane Catherine Cobden was born in 1851, the daughter of Richard Cobden, M.P. She had a lifelong and passionate interest in minority rights and equality, and firmly embraced woman suffrage, as well as other controversial issues of her day, such as Irish Independence, and the rights of indigenous peoples in South Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia.
In 1906, as a vice president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage, she attempted to attend the trial of her sister and fellow women right’s campaigner, Anne, but was removed from the Court. She had married Thomas Fisher Unwin, the publisher, and their New Year’s Day card for 1907 bore a design by Sylvia Pankhurst. In February that year she held an “At Home” at which Christabel Pankhurst gave a
talk on “What the Women’s Movement Means.” She subscribed to the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1907 and 1909-10. In 1913 she was vice president of both the London Society for Women’s Suffrage and of the Free Church League for Women’s Suffrage. Both she and Anne sought different ways to perpetuate their father’s ideas on free trade, international co-operation and peace. Cobden-Unwin died in 1949.
This commonplace book provides an intimate insight into what Cobden-Unwin, in private moments, thought worth recording, and reveals a layered and sophisticated mind at work. Of the few photographs, some are of notables (such as Prince Kropotkin), and others relate to Richard Cobden and his daughters. Interspersed with material of family interest, in particular about her father and sisters, are pages relating to Ireland; a list of International Peace Conferences, and their themes, which she attended between 1904 and 1912; clues to her views on the Boer War, and other issues of the day. Her political and social interests are sparsely represented (a single manuscript poem and a printed stamp denoting her interest in the women’s movement, for example); she has instead written out many quotes and poems from diverse sources, including William Blake, Byron, Walt Whitman, and others.
(#4656502)
Print Inquire
