William Godwin
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008
William Godwin 1756-1836, English author and political philosopher. A minister in his youth, he was, however, plagued by religious doubts and gave up preaching in 1783 for a literary career. His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) recorded the view that men are ultimately guided by reason and therefore, being rational creatures, could live in harmony without laws and institutions. His views are also reflected in his novels— Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794), St. Leon (1799), and Fleetwood (1805). In 1797, Godwin married Mary Wollstonecraft, who died the same year after giving birth to a daughter, Mary. He remarried in 1801 and in 1805 established a small, juvenile publishing business. His last years were an unceasing struggle against poverty and debt. Godwin's works strongly influenced his younger contemporaries, particularly Shelley , whose elopement with Mary (1814) drew from Godwin an exhibition of sternness at variance with his earlier views. However, he was later reconciled to their marriage.
Bibliography: See biographies by F. K. Brown (1926) and E. K. Paul (2 vol., 1896; repr. 1970); studies by H. N. Brailsford (2d ed. 1951), D. H. Munro (1953), J. P. Clark (1977), A. E. Rodway, ed. (1977), D. T. Hughes (1980), and M. Philp (1986).
Author not available, GODWIN, WILLIAM.,
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
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"Ruinous Mixture": Godwin, Enclosure and the Associated Self.(Critical Essay)
Studies in Romanticism; 12/22/2000; Anderson, Robert; 787 words
; The subject of property is the key-stone that completes the fabric of political justice. --William Godwin, Political Justice (2.420) The purpose of early instruction is not absolute. It is of less importance, generally speaking, that a child should acquire this or that species of knowledge, than
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Framing the Corpus: Godwin's "Editing" of Wollstonecraft in 1798.(Mary Wollstonecraft; William Godwin)
Studies in Romanticism; 12/22/2000; RAJAN, TILOTTAMA; 787 words
; IN 1798 WILLIAM GODWIN PUBLISHED BOTH HIS MEMOIRS OF WOLLSTONECRAFT and his posthumous gathering of her works, including her unfinished novel The Wrongs of Woman.(1) Godwin's Memoirs were so controversial that he was forced to issue a second, revised edition in the same year. Southey wrote that he
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William Godwin and the Joseph Johnson circle: the evidence of the diaries.
Wordsworth Circle; 6/22/2002; Lau, Beth; 787 words
; Joseph Johnson has remained a shadowy figure to students of the Romantic period, despite his importance in bringing together a remarkable group of liberal thinkers and writers from various disciplines and publishing their works. Both Claire Tomalin (66-67) and Leslie Chard (51-52) note the most
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Rare Godwin vases.(Museum accessions)
The Magazine Antiques; 6/1/2008; Luhrs, Kathleen; 527 words
; The recent acquisition of a pair of lively and amusing nineteenth-century vases by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is a harbinger of the large exhibition on the aesthetic movement the museum is planning for 2010. The vases are the only known three-dimensional ceramic works by the
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Godwin, Keats and productive leisure.(William Godwin, John Keats)
Wordsworth Circle; 1/1/2002; Anderson, Rob; 787 words
; And, truly, I would rather be struc dumb, Than speak against this ardent listlessness: For I have ever thought that it might bless The world with benefits unknowingly; As does the nightingale, upperched high, And cloister'd among cool and bunched leaves-- Endymion (1.824-29) William Godwin designed
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