Sylvia Pankhurst, Artist And Crusader: An Intimate Portrait

by Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst

A near fine copy in a very good+ price-clipped dust jacket. First edition. Cloth. Sm. 4to. Illus. with color & b/w photos.

225 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1979

About the author

Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst OBE (3 December 1927 – 16 February 2017) was a British-Ethiopian scholar, founding member of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, and former professor at the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. His books have been reviewed in scholarly journals, with Edward Ullendorff calling his The Ethiopians as another testimony to his "remarkable diligence and industry in the service of Ethiopian studies". He is known for his research on economic history and socio-cultural studies on Ethiopia.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Anthony Lipmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This edition was amongst the books I inherited from my godfather, Eric Austen (1922-1999), a Conscientious Objector in WW2 and creator of the first Peace Signs made out of ceramic for the First Aldermaston March in 1958. Here is a book owned by my dissenting uncle about an even greater dissenter. The younger sister of Christabel, and daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, abandoned the practice of her art for politics. In her youth she won a prize at the Manchester School of Art to go and study in Venice. Walter Crane, who was a socialist painter, was a former director of design at the school. As the battles for women's suffrage grew, Sylvia took her brushes and easel to industrial cities such as Stoke on Trent, Berwick upon Tweed and Newcastle, and painted what she saw like an artistic George Orwell. Her visual record of women working to clean lead glazes on finished pottery in polluting conditions, seeing fisherwomen cleaning and packing herrings, stooking sheaves of corn in fields, picking potatoes, or grading coal at the mine surface - always for longer hours and half the pay of men - stirred her conscience. The book describes how Sylvia saw the fight for the Womens' vote about justice and democracy in general, not just a matter of gender. She was a friend of Keir Hardie, leader of the Independent Labour Party who on numerous occasions came to her side as she put herself in harm's way in her many petitions to Parliament. Written by her only son, Richard, it is a portrait of a woman absolutely steadfast in her work, famously setting up a Votes for Women branch in the East End of London while her sister directed operations in the Women's movement (WSPU) autocratically from Paris. She was sent to prison where she went on hunger strike and thirst strike on more than a dozen occasions, only rescued from death by the authorities so she would not become a martyr. Of interest to me were the many emblems she designed to promote the Women's cause, as well as the mural for the Prince's Skating Rink Exhibition of 1909 in which all the imagery was to remind the visitor of Votes for Women. We live in times when those who seek to persuade us of the justice of their cause have gone to extremes to deliver their message. For example 'Insulate Britain' whose members have blocked motorways preventing people from getting to work. The Suffragettes, including Sylvia, were not beyond demonstration by throwing stones. Each time they sought to petition minsters they were ignored and promises to raise the Emancipation of Women in Parliament were not kept. Richard Pankhurst describes the force feeding which is shocking to think of as having been meted out on anyone in a civilised society - let alone women. 'On the third day two prison doctors sounded her heart, felt her pulse, and then told her that they had no alternative but to feed her by force. Six wardresses flung her on her back on the bed and held her down firmly by the shoulders and wrists, hips, knees and ankles. Her mouth was forced open, and she felt a steel instrument pushed into it. The screw was then turned to prise open her jaws. A feeding tube was then thrust down her throat. She vomited as the contraption was removed. She was left on her bed, gasping for breath and sobbing convulsively.' She was a vehement opponent of WW1 too and an anti-war monument was erected by Sylvia near her home in Woodford Green Essex. In later life she campaigned for the Ethiopian nation to be free of their Italian overlords who led by Mussolini had invaded in the 1930s and she ended her life there honoured and buried in the Selassie or Trinity Cathedral in ground set aside for Ethiopian patriots.

[Colleen Fuller]

This book left a large imprint on my mind and heart. It was given to me by my mother when I was about 22 years old and very involved in independent documentary film. I also was a peace activist and felt torn between my activism and my work, which I also loved. I chose my activism over my art and have never regretted it, although I wish we didn’t have to make decisions like that. Richard Pankhurst’s biography of his wonderful mother made me understand that I wasn’t the only young woman who confronted these kinds of decisions. I never had any judgement about people who chose differently - I know it’s a hard decision, especially during these times. Sylvia Pankhurst was a remarkable and courageous leader as this biography so clearly shows.