Charles Whibley (9 December 1859 – 4 March 1930) was an English literary journalist and author. In literature and the arts, his views were progressive. He supported James Abbott McNeill Whistler (they had married sisters). He also recommended T. S. Eliot to

Geoffrey Faber Sir Geoffrey Cust Faber (23 August 1889, Great Malvern – 31 March 1961) was a British academic, publisher, and poet. He was a nephew of the noted Catholic convert and hymn writer, Father Frederick William Faber, C.O., founder of the Brompton ...

, which resulted in Eliot's being appointed as an editor at

Faber and Gwyer Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel Be ...

. Eliot's essay ''Charles Whibley'' (1931) was contained within his '' Selected Essays, 1917-1932''. Whibley's style was described by Matthew as "often acerbic high Tory commentary".H. C. G. Matthew (2004).
Whibley, Charles (1859–1930)
. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biograph''y.

Early life

Mother of Pearl and Silver The Andalusian

Whibley was born 9 December 1859 at Sittingbourne, Kent, England. His parents were Ambrose Whibley, silk mercer, and his second wife, Mary Jean Davy. He was educated at

Bristol Grammar School Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 mixed, independent day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowed by wealthy Bristol merchants Robert and Nicholas Thorn ...

and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes f ...

, where he took a first in classics in 1883. Charles Whibley's immediate family included his brother

Leonard Whibley Leonard Whibley (20 April 1864 – 8 November 1941) was a British scholar who edited ''A Companion to Greek Studies'' from 1905 to 1931.Sydney C. Roberts, revised by Mark Pottle (2004).Whibley, Leonard (1863–1941). ''Oxford Dictionary of Nationa ...

, who was Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1899–1910, and a lecturer in Classics (Ancient History). Charles also had a half-brother,

Fred Whibley Fred Whibley (Fredrick George Whibley, 1855–1919) abandoned a career as clerk in a London bank to escape from the constraints and social expectations of respectability in the Victorian era. He ended up as a copra trader on Niutao in Tuvalu in t ...

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from cop ...

trader, on

Niutao Niutao is a reef island in the northern part of Tuvalu. It is one of the nine districts (islands) of Tuvalu. It is also one of the three districts that consist of only one island - not counting the three islets inside the closed lagoon. Niutao has ...

, Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu), and a half-sister, Eliza Elenor, who was the wife of

John T. Arundel John T. Arundel (1 September 1841 – 30 November 1919) was an English entrepreneur who was instrumental in the development of the mining of phosphate rock on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Banaba (Ocean Island). Williams & Macdonald (1985) ...

, the owner of J. T. Arundel & Co. which evolved into Pacific Islands Company and later the Pacific Phosphate Company, which commenced

phosphate mining in Nauru The economy of Nauru and Banaba has been almost wholly dependent on phosphate, which has led to environmental catastrophe on these islands, with 80% of the islands’ surface having been strip-mined. The phosphate deposits were virtually exhaust ...

and

Banaba Island BanabaThe correct spelling and etymology in Gilbertese should be ''Bwanaba'' but the Constitution of Kiribati writes Banaba. Because of the spelling in English or French, the name was very often written Paanapa or Paanopa, as it was in 1901 Ac ...

(Ocean Island). Whibley worked for three years in the editorial department of

Cassell & Co Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell & Co acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell ...

, publishers. He shared a house with his brother

William Ernest Henley William Ernest Henley (23 August 184911 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem " Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the ...

, and George Warrington Steevens.

Life in Paris

In 1894 Whibley became the Paris correspondent for the ''

Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed i ...

''. This Tory evening paper conformed with Whibley's conservative political views. In Paris Whibley moved in

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

circles with Stéphane Mallarmé,

Marcel Schwob Mayer André Marcel Schwob, known as Marcel Schwob (23 August 1867 – 26 February 1905), was a French symbolist writer best known for his short stories and his literary influence on authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alfonso Reyes, Roberto Bo ...

, and Paul Valéry. He was a witness at the wedding of

and

Marguerite Moreno Marguerite Moreno (born Lucie Marie Marguerite Monceau; 15 September 1871, Paris - 14 July 1948, Touzac, Lot) was a French stage and film actress. On 12 September 1900, in England, she married the writer Marcel Schwob, whom she had met in 189 ...

in England on 12 September 1900.

Marriage to Ethel Birnie Philip

In 1896 Charles married Ethel Birnie Philip in the garden of the house occupied by James McNeill Whistler at n° 110 Rue du Bac, Paris. The photographs of the wedding were taken by Louis Edmond Vallois, who had a studio at 99 rue de Rennes, Paris. Ethel Birnie Philip was the daughter of the sculptor

John Birnie Philip John Birnie Philip (23 November 1824 – 2 March 1875) was a nineteenth-century English sculptor. Much of his work was carried out for the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. Life Philip was born in London, the son of William and Elizabeth Ph ...

and Frances Black. Before her marriage Ethel Whibley worked during 1893–4 as secretary to James McNeill Whistler. Whistler painted a number of full-length portraits of Ethel Whibley, including ''Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian'', and portraits and sketches of her titled as Miss Ethel Philip or Mrs Ethel Whibley. Hartrick (1939) describes Whibley as "an obviously English type, and therefore something of a red rag to Whistler". As the brother-in-law of James McNeill Whistler, Whibley was part of Whistler's intimate family circle, referred to as "Wobbles" in Whistler's correspondence. On one occasion Whistler mocked Whibley for describing himself as "something of a boulevardier" during his time in Paris. In 1897 Whistler created the cover design for Whibley's volume of essays ''A Book of Scoundrels''.''A Book of Scoundrels'' by Charles Whibley, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1632

Later career as a writer

Whibley's wife, Ethel, died in 1920, and in 1927 Charles married Philippa Raleigh, the daughter of

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...

, Chair of English Literature at Oxford University. Whibley contributed to the London and Edinburgh magazines, including '' The Pall Mall Magazine'', '' Macmillan's Magazine'', and ''

Blackwood's Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine''. The first number appeared in April 1817 ...

''. As a writer on ''Blackwood's Magazine'', he was a prominent conservative columnist, as well as an influential literary figure, recruited by its editor William Blackwood III. He was a persistent critic of the system of

state education State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary educational institution, schools that educate all students without charge. They are ...

. It was an

open secret An open secret is a concept or idea that is "officially" (''de jure'') secret or restricted in knowledge, but in practice (''de facto'') is widely known; or it refers to something that is widely known to be true but which none of the people most i ...

that Whibley contributed anonymously, to the Magazine, his ''Musings without Methods'' for over twenty-five years. T. S. Eliot described them as "the best sustained piece of literary journalism that I know of in recent times". Whibley was friends with

and contributed to the '' Scots Observer'' (published in Edinburgh) and also to the '' National Observer'' (published in London) under Henley's editorship. Whibley died on 4 March 1930 at Hyères, France, and his body was buried at

Great Brickhill Great Brickhill is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the border with the City of Milton Keynes, located south-east of Central Milton Keynes, and in the same direction from Fenny Str ...

, Buckinghamshire. A portrait of Charles Whibley (1925–26), by Sir G. Kelly, is held by

. A sketch of Charles Whibley is held by the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

Works

*''A Collection of Letters of W. M. Thackeray 1847~1855'' (1887) *''Cathedrals of England and Wales and Their History'' (1888) *''In Cap and Gown: Three Centuries Of Cambridge Wit'' (1889) editor *''A Book of English Prose, Character and Incident 1387~1649'' (1894) with

W. E. Henley William Ernest Henley (23 August 184911 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem "Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the o ...

*''A Book of Scoundrels'' (1897) *''Studies in Frankness'' (1898) *''The Pageantry of Life'' (1900) *''Musings Without Method: A Record of 1900~1901'' (1902) *''William Makepeace Thackeray'' (1903) *''Literary Portraits'' (1904) *''American Sketches'' (1908) *''The Letters of an Englishman'' (1911) published anonymously *''The Letters of an Englishman, Second Series'' (1912) published anonymously *''Essays in Biography'' (1913) *''Jonathan Swift'' (1917) The Leslie Stephen Lecture, University of Cambridge, 26 May 1917 *''Political Portraits'' (1917) *''Literary Studies'' (1919) *''Political Portraits, Second Series'' (1923) *''Collected Essays of W. P. Ker'' (1925) editor *''Lord John Manners and His Friends'' (1925) Volumes I & II *''Apuleius: The Golden Ass'' (1927) *''The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter'' (1927) with W. C. Firebaugh

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libra ...

publishes online editions of ''American Sketches'' and ''A Book of Scoundrels''''A Book of Scoundrels'' by Charles Whibley,

, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1632

Literature

* Stephen Donovan, ''The Muse of Blackwood's: Charles Whibley and Literary Criticism in the World'', in David Finkelstein (editor), ''Print Culture and the Blackwood Tradition'' (2006) * Julie F. Codell, ed., ''Imperial Co-histories: National Identities and the British and Colonial Press'' (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003), p. 96.

References

External links

* * *
Works by Charles Whibley
at

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whibley, Charles 1859 births 1930 deaths People educated at Bristol Grammar School English male journalists English writers Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Victorian era People of the Victorian era British expatriates in France