Harriet Shaw Weaver (1 September 1876 – 14 October 1961) was an English

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

and a magazine editor. She was a significant

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of Irish writer

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

Life

Harriet Shaw Weaver was born in

Frodsham Frodsham is a market town, civil parish, and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Its population was 8,982 in 2001, increasing to 9,077 at the 2011 Census. It is s ...

, Cheshire, the sixth of eight children of Frederic Poynton Weaver, a

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

, and Mary (née Wright) Weaver, a wealthy heiress. She was educated privately by a governess, Miss Marion Spooner, until 1894, initially in Cheshire and later in Hampstead. Her parents denied her wish to go to university. She decided to become a social worker. After attending a course on the

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

basis of social relations at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

she became involved in

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

and joined the

Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership an ...

. In 1911 she began subscribing to '' The Freewoman: A Weekly Feminist Review'', a radical periodical edited by

Dora Marsden Dora Marsden (5 March 1882 – 13 December 1960) was an English suffragette, editor of literary journals, and philosopher of language. Beginning her career as an activist in the Women's Social and Political Union, Marsden eventually broke ...

and Mary Gawthorpe. The following year its proprietors withdrew their support from it, and Weaver stepped in to save it from financial ruin. In 1913, it was renamed ''

The New Freewoman ''The New Freewoman'' was a monthly London literary magazine edited by Dora Marsden and owned by Harriet Shaw Weaver. Initially, Rebecca West was in charge of the literary content of the magazine, but after meeting Ezra Pound at one of Violet ...

''. Later that year, at the suggestion of the magazine's literary editor, Ezra Pound, the name was changed again to ''

The Egoist ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. During the following years, Weaver made more financial donations to the periodical, becoming more involved with its organisation and also becoming its editor. Ezra Pound was involved with finding new contributors and one of these was James Joyce. Weaver was convinced of his genius and started to support him, first by serialising ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional al ...

'' in ''The Egoist'' in 1914. When Joyce could not find anyone to publish it as a book, Weaver set up the Egoist Press for this purpose at her own expense. Joyce's '' Ulysses'' was then serialised in ''The Egoist'', but, because of its controversial content, it was rejected by all the printers approached by Weaver, and she arranged for it to be printed abroad. Weaver continued to give considerable support to Joyce and his family (approaching a million pounds in 2019 moneyAccording to Prof. Finn Fordham of Royal Holloway College, editor for Oxford Classics of

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

, BBC Radio Three, 18 June 2019.), but following her reservations about his work that was to become ''

'', their relationship became strained and then virtually broken. However, on Joyce's death, Weaver paid for his funeral and acted as his executor. In 1931, Weaver joined the Labour Party; however, having been influenced by reading Marx's ''

Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...

,'' she joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

in 1938. She was active in this organisation, taking part in demonstrations and selling copies of the '' Daily Worker''. She also continued her allegiance to the memory of Joyce, acting as his literary executor and helping to compile ''The Letters of James Joyce''. She died at her home near

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

in 1961, aged 85, leaving her collection of literary material to the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

and to the National Book League.

References

Sources

* *Jordan Anthony J. James Joyce Unplugged Westport Books 2017 *Fennell, Conor: A Little Circle of Kindred Minds: Joyce in Paris. Bloomville Press, Dublin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Harriet Shaw 1876 births 1961 deaths British feminists British magazine editors British suffragists James Joyce People from Frodsham British socialist feminists Women of the Victorian era

Life

See also

References

Sources