Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love

Rowbotham, Sheila. Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love. Verso, dist. by Norton. Oct. 2008. c.563p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-1-84467-295-0. $40. BIOG~Verdict: A well-researched and engaging biography of the eclectic visionary Edward Carpenter. Recommended for academic and large public libraries. Background: Rowbotham (gender & labor history, Univ. of Manchester) delivers a skillfully written volume on writer, socialist, philosopher, and early gay activist Edward Carpenter. A radical and free thinker, Carpenter was interested in the environment, animal rights, and prison reform; he and many of his friends (e.g., Walt Whitman, George Bernard Shaw, E.M. Forster) became major influences and powerful reformers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Carpenter constantly challenged Victorian era views of society and encouraged his milieu to think in new and different ways. Rowbotham does him justice in this accessible introduction to Carpenter and his times.-Troy Reed, Southeast Regional Lib., Gilbert, AZ.