James McGrigor Allan (1827,
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
- 1916,
Epsom
Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...
) was a British anthropologist and writer.
Biography
McGrigor was the son of Colin Allan, at one time chief medical officer of
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...
, and Jane Gibbon. He opposed women's right to vote and argued that universal suffrage would cause the disruption of domestic ties, the desecration of marriage and the dissolution of the family. He attributed the agitation for equal rights to the problem of the "superfluous women" on account of emigration and the growing objection of middle and upper-class men to marriage.
["The Privileges of Both Sexes," ''Auckland Star'', Vol. I, Issue 231, 5 October 1870, p. 2.]
He was member of the
Anthropological Society of London. His younger brother was the poet
Peter John Allan.
Works
Fiction
* (1857). ''Ernest Basil''.
* (1858)
''Grins and Wrinkles''
* (1862). ''The Cost of a Coronet''.
* (1862). ''The Last Days of a Bachelor: An Autobiography''.
* (1863). ''Nobly False: A Novel''.
* (1864). ''Father Stirling''.
* (1887). ''The Wild Curate''.
* (1888). ''A Lady's Four Perils: A Novel''.
* (1903). ''Where Lies her Charm?''
Non-fiction
* (1860). ''The Intellectual Severance of Men and Women''.
* (1890)
''Woman Suffrage, Wrong in Principle, and Practice: An Essay''
Selected articles
* (1866)
"On the Ape-Origin of Mankind,"''The Popular Magazine of Anthropology'' 1 (4), pp. 121–128.
* (1868)
"Europeans and their Descendants in North America,"''Journal of the Anthropological Society of London'' 6, pp. cxxvi-clxvii.
* (1869)
"On the Real Differences in the Minds of Men and Women,"''Journal of the Anthropological Society of London'' 7, pp. cxcv-ccxix.
* (1870). "A Protest Against Woman's Demand for the Privileges of both Sexes," ''Victoria Magazine'' 15, pp. 318–356.
Miscellany
* (1853)
"Biographical Notice of the Author,"in ''The Poetical Remains of Peter John Allan''. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
References
Further reading
* Rogers, Katharine M. (1966). ''Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp. 219–21, 225.
*
Theroux, Alexander (1981). "The Misogynist's Library," in ''Darconville's Cat''. New York: Doubleday & Company, pp. 442–451.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, James McGrigor
1827 births
1916 deaths
Anti-suffragists
British anthropologists
19th-century English novelists
20th-century English novelists
Male critics of feminism
Victorian novelists
Race and intelligence controversy
English male novelists
Writers from Bristol