Thomas Dixon (1831–1880) was a working class autodidact and literary correspondent of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

in the north-east of England. A cork-cutter by trade, he lodged with a close friend of the head of the School of Art in Newcastle, William Bell Scott, and through this became acquainted with many of the artists later known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and others in their circle, including

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's ...

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

and

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...

. His correspondence with the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti ...

, some of whom appear to have found him a nuisance, was important in bringing the Pitman Poet

Joseph Skipsey Joseph Skipsey (17 March 1832 – 3 September 1903) was a Northumberland, Northumbrian poet during the Victorian period and one of a number of literary coal miners to be known as 'The Pitman Poet'. Among his best known works is the ballad ...

to wider notice. He enjoyed a lengthy correspondence with

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

between February and December 1867. Ruskin published his half of the correspondence, with excerpts from Dixon in the appendices, ''Time and Tyde by Weare and Tyne: Twenty-five Letters to a Working Man of Sunderland on the Laws of Work''. The letters touched on themes of honesty in work, fairness and cooperation, in keeping with his essays engaging with John Stuart Mills,

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

and

Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

. He was widely read and a member of the Sunderland Literary and Philosophical Society. Though the recipient of many books as gifts from his correspondents, Dixon had few of them in his house, remarking that he saw no need for books as ornaments and that after reading and absorbing a book's contents, he would donate it to the local library. He sat for many of the artists he corresponded with and a portrait of him by Alfred Dixon (no relation) is in the collection of Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. At his death, Dixon had a substantial archive of letters, which he desired to be left to the town of Sunderland as a single collection with his books and art. Instead, his letters were split up and auctioned in the 1970s.

References

External links

* {{cite web , url=https://collectionssearchtwmuseums.org.uk/#details=ecatalogue.297754 , title=Portrait of Thomas Dixon
Ruskin's letters to Dixon
in Project Gutenberg British academic biography stubs 1831 births 1880 deaths