Theodora Wilson Wilson

Theodora Wilson Wilson (13 January 1865 – 8 November 1941) was a British writer and pacifist. She was a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Her "quaint" reputation as a writer changed when she published her 1916 science fiction novel The Last Weapon, A Vision, whose anti-war message led to its being banned.

Theodora Wilson Wilson
Born13 January 1865
Kendal, Westmorland, UK
Died8 November 1941(1941-11-08) (aged 76)
St. Albans, UK
Occupation(s)Writer, pacifist
RelativesSamuel Bagster the Elder (great-grandfather)

Early life and education

Theodora Wilson Wilson was born in Kendal, Westmorland, the daughter of Isaac Whitwell Wilson and Anne Bagster Wilson.[1] Her family were former Quakers; her grandfather Jonathan Bagster and great-grandfather Samuel Bagster were Bible publishers.[2] Her older brother Horace Bagster Wilson was a noted physician.[3] She attended Stramongate School and Croydon High School and studied music in Germany.[4]

Career

Wilson ran a Sunday school as a young woman, and founded an evening school program for working girls.[4] Her first book was a 1900 guide to poultry keeping for women.[5] She moved to London in 1909, and became a Quaker before World War I. Her career as a fiction writer began with her first novel, T'bacca Queen (1901).[6] She also wrote children's books,[7][8] Bible study guides, and plays, including Champion North (1931),[9] Across Yonder (1936)[10] and Marya.[11]

A 1905 review of Wilson's novel Langbarrow Hall declared that she was "striving neither to be clever or unusual, but merely to write out at length a story both quaint and natural".[12] This "quaint" reputation soon changed, as her 1916 pacifist allegorical novel[13] The Last Weapon, A Vision has science fiction and fantasy themes, as it imagines "Hellite", an ultimate doomsday device, and a messenger from Paradise called "the Child".[2][14] The book was briefly banned as anti-war propaganda,[15] and thousands of copies were seized by authorities.[16] An American reviewer believed that "When the war is over it may be pointed out as one of the great books resulting from this crisis".[17]

Wilson was a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and served on the general committee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation from 1915 to 1922.[2] She was editor of The New Crusader, a pacifist periodical, from 1917.[2][18][19] She spoke at meetings in Trecynon and Merthyr in 1917,[16][20] and at a peace rally in Bishopsgate in 1918;[21] she also spoke at Society of Friends meetings in Manchester in 1914,[22] 1933[23] and 1934,[24] and in London in 1936.[25]

Legacy

In 2019, the Greater Manchester & District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament crowdfunded a new edition of The Last Weapon, a Vision.[15][26] The launch of the new book was supported by a talk in Manchester and a video that featured Maxine Peake.[15]

Selected books
Theodora Wilson Wilson's The Last Weapon – a banned book[26]
  • Poultry Keeping for Women, for Pleasure and Profit (1900)[5]
  • T'bacca Queen (1901)[27]
  • Ursula Raven (1905)[28]
  • Langbarrow Hall (1905)[29]
  • Our Joshua (1905)[30]
  • The Magic Jujubes (1906)[31]
  • Sarah the Valiant (1907)[32]
  • The Factory Queen (1908)[33]
  • The Islanders (1910)[34]
  • The Search of the Child (1910)[35]
  • A Modern Affair (1912)[36]
  • Jim's Children (1912)[37]
  • Five of Them (1912)[38]
  • A Modern Ahab (1912)[39]
  • The Dauntless Three (1914)[40]
  • What Happened to Kitty (1916)[41]
  • Stories from the Bible (1916)[42]
  • The Last Weapon, A Vision (1916)[43]
  • The Weapon Unsheathed (1916)[44]
  • Netherdale For Ever![45]
  • The Story of Odysseus (1921)[46]
  • The Last Dividend (1922)[47]
  • The Undaunted Trio (1923)[48]
  • Father M. P. (1923)[49]
  • Cousins in Camp (1925)[50]
  • Jerry Makes Good (1926)[51]
  • The Cousins of Faulkland (1927)[52]
  • The Strange Adventures of Billy (1927)[53]
  • The Explorer's Son (1928)[54]
  • The Laughing Band (1929)[55]
  • Pat Joins the Laughing Band (1929)[56]
  • The Parables of Our Lord (1929)[57]
  • Founders of Wat End School (1932)[58]
  • Once-upon-a-time Land (1932)[59]
  • The Lost Cup of Walla (1933)[60]
  • The Sole Survivor (1935)[61]
  • A Tale of Two Secrets (1936)[62]
  • Margot Fights Through (1936)[63]
  • Those Strange Years (1937)[64]
  • The St Berga Swimming Pool (1939)[65]
  • The Grants and Jane (1940)[66]
  • Into the Arena (1944)[67]

Personal life

Wilson died in St. Albans in 1941, aged 76 years.[4]

References
  1. Foster, Joseph (1871). The pedigree of Wilson of High Wray & Kendal, and the families connected with them. pp. 7–8.
  2. den Boggende, Bert (2007). "The Fellowship of Reconciliation's Propaganda and Theodora Wilson Wilson's Literary Contribution, 1914–1917". Quaker Studies. 12: 107–128.
  3. "Rev. Horace Bagster Wilson". BMJ. 1 (3884): 1242–1243. 15 June 1935. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.3884.1242-b. ISSN 0959-8138. S2CID 38550668.
  4. "Theodora Wilson Wilson". The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  5. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1900). Poultry Keeping for Women, for Pleasure and Profit. Cable printing and publishing Company.
  6. "T'Bacca Queen". The Buffalo Sunday Morning News. 18 May 1902. p. 4. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Kelly, L. V. (11 December 1927). "Animal Story". The Province. p. 52. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Books by Theodora Wilson Wilson". Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tas. : 1883 – 1928). 21 November 1925. p. 8. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Trove.
  9. "Dramatis Personae". The Observer. 22 November 1931. p. 11. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1936). Across Yonder—a Mystical Adventure: A Play in Three Acts. The Author.
  11. Wilson, Theodora Wilson. Marya: A Play ...
  12. "Among the New Books". Chicago Tribune. 7 April 1905. p. 8. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Ouditt, Sharon (22 January 2002). Women Writers of the First World War: An Annotated Bibliography. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-94601-3.
  14. "Authors : Wilson, Theodora Wilson". SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  15. Manchester Friends of the Earth (11 November 2019). "Event: Banned – Books for Peace (hosted by Greater Manchester Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament)". Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  16. "Well-known Authoress at Trecynon". The Aberdare Leader. 22 December 1917. p. 2. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Welsh Newspapers.
  17. Winston, John C. (12 May 1917). "Reviews of New Books: The Last Weapon". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 10. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Ouditt, Sharon (23 September 2020). Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-15871-7.
  19. Ceadel, Martin (2000). Semi-detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854–1945. Oxford University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-19-924117-0.
  20. "A Meeting of Quiet Friendship; Visit of Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson to Merthyr". Pioneer. 22 December 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Welsh Newspapers.
  21. "Christian Pacifists; Armaments Can Never Succeed". Pioneer. 20 July 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Welsh Newspapers, National Library of Wales.
  22. "The Despair of the Age". The Guardian. 14 December 1914. p. 3. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Without Vision: Miss Theodora Wilson and World Troubles". The Guardian. 20 May 1933. p. 18. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. "Threat to Liberty; Are We Losing Faith in Parliament?". The Guardian. 30 July 1934. p. 16. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. "Quaker Addresses". The Guardian. 14 February 1936. p. 13. Retrieved 17 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. "Help raise £3000 to Republish Theodora Wilson Wilson's book The Last Weapon, banned in 1918". JustGiving. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  27. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1901). T'bacca queen. Edward Arnold.
  28. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1905). Ursula Raven. Harper & Brothers.
  29. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1905). Langbarrow Hall. D. Appleton and Company.
  30. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1905). Our Joshua, Etc.
  31. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1906). The magic jujubes. London.
  32. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1907). Sarah the valiant. Alston Rivers.
  33. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1908). The Factory Queen, Etc.
  34. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1910). The Islanders: The Story of a Family. Blackie.
  35. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1910). The search of the child.
  36. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1912). A Modern Affair. Stanley Paul.
  37. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1912). Jim's children. Blackie and Son.
  38. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1912). Five of Them. Blackie & Son.
  39. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1912). A modern Ahab. Stanley Paul.
  40. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1914). The Dauntless Three. Thomas Nelson & Sons.
  41. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1916). What Happened to Kitty: A Story for Children. Blackie.
  42. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1916). Stories from the Bible.
  43. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1916). The Last Weapon: A Vision. C.W. Daniel.
  44. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1916). The Weapon Unsheathed: A Spiritual Adventure. C. W. Daniel.
  45. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1919). Netherdale for ever!.
  46. Homer (1921). The Story of Odysseus. By Theodora Wilson Wilson.
  47. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1922). The Last Dividend: An Economic Romance. International Bookshops, Limited.
  48. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1923). The Undaunted Trio. London.
  49. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1923). Father M.P.A Story for Boys and Girls.
  50. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1925). Cousins in Camp.
  51. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1926). Jerry Makes Good. "Boys Own Paper" Office.
  52. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1927). The Cousins of Falkland, Etc. London.
  53. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1927). The Strange Adventures of Billy.
  54. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1928). The Explorer's Son, Etc. 'Boy's Own Paper'.
  55. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1929). The Laughing Band, Etc. London.
  56. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1929). Pat Joins the Laughing Band. London.
  57. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1929). The Parables of Our Lord. R.T.S.
  58. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1932). Founders of Wat End School, Etc. London.
  59. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1933). Once-Upon-A-Time Land.
  60. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1933). The Lost Cup of Walla.
  61. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1935). The Sole Survivor.
  62. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1936). A Tale of Two Secrets.
  63. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1936). Margot Fights Through. A Story for Girls. Girl's Own Paper.
  64. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1937). Those Strange Years. C.W. Daniel.
  65. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1939). The St. Berga Swimming Pool.
  66. Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1940). The Grants and Jane. Ward, Lock & Company.
  67. Wilson, Theodora Wilson; Brock, H. M. (1944). Into the arena. London: Collins. OCLC 226268217.
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