James McGrigor Allan (1827,
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
- 1916,
Epsom
Epsom is a town in 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 Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...
) was an English 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 most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...
, 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 also argue that woman's natural structure don't allow them to do so. 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 a 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
English anthropologists
19th-century English novelists
20th-century English novelists
Male critics of feminism
Victorian novelists
People involved in race and intelligence controversies
English male novelists
Writers from Bristol
British anti-suffragists
Sensation novelists
19th-century English non-fiction writers
English male non-fiction writers
19th-century English essayists
English male essayists
19th-century English biographers
English male biographers