Ethel Arnold
{{Short description|English journalist and suffrage lecturer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ethel Arnold
| image = Ethel M Arnold in 1910.jpg
| caption = Advert for her 1910 US lecture tour
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1865
| birth_place = Harborne, Staffordshire, England1871 England Census
| death_date = 5 October 1930 (aged 65)
| death_place = Totland, Isle of Wight
| death_cause =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| education =
| employer =
| occupation = Writer, photographer, lecturer
| parents =
| relatives =
| signature =
| website =
| footnotes =
| nationality = British
}}
Ethel Margaret Arnold (bapt. 26 May 1865England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 – 5 October 1930) was an English journalist, author, and lecturer on female suffrage.
Life
file:Julia and Ethel Arnold.jpg and Ethel Arnold in 1872 by Lewis Carroll]]
Arnold was born in 1865, the youngest of eight surviving children of Tom Arnold, a professor of literature, and Julia Sorrell. Her uncle was the poet Matthew Arnold and her grandfather Thomas Arnold,{{cite journal | last1 = Stewart | first1 = Herbert L | year = 1920 | title = Mrs. Humphry Ward | url = https://archive.org/stream/n1universitymag19mcgiuoft#page/192/mode/2up | journal = The University Magazine | volume = XIX | issue = 2| pages = 193–207 }} the famous headmaster of Rugby School.Trevor, Meriol (1973). The Arnolds: Thomas Arnold and his Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. One of her sisters became the novelist Mary Augusta Ward. Another sister was Julia and she married Leonard Huxley, and their sons were Julian and Aldous Huxley.{{cite journal | last1 = Harris | first1 = Muriel | year = 1920 | title = Mrs. Humphry Ward | journal = The North American Review | volume = 211 | issue = 775| pages = 818–825 | jstor=25120533}} The Arnolds and the Huxleys were important members of British intelligentsia.
Arnold's father had returned to Australia after converting to Catholicism and finding it impossible to work. He worked in Ireland but by 1865 he had renounced Catholicism and returned to being an Anglican. This was a great relief to his wife and the family moved to Oxford where her father thrived.Bernard Bergonzi, ‘Arnold, Thomas (1823–1900)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/687, accessed 6 Nov 2017]
She met Lewis Carroll as a child and she and her sister featured in a number of his photographs. For Christmas in 1877, Lewis Carroll devised the word game of Doublets for Julia and Ethel. The game was later published by Vanity Fair and by Carroll.{{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Morton N.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-8NBQAAQBAJ&q=doublets+julia+arnold&pg=PT347|title=Lewis Carroll: A Biography|date=2015-04-09|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4472-8614-1|language=en}} Ethel later reported that she enjoyed the attention of having her photo taken as it was a break from her less than happy homelife. Arnold was to remain friends with Lewis Carroll when she was still an adult.
Ethel failed to gain a university place and she seems to have placed too much weight on her sister Mary's opinion. Mary persuaded her that her ambition to be an actress should not be pursued and she later said that Ethel had insufficient experience to be a successful writer. This was despite Ethel already having a commission for a novel.
file:Mrs Ward by Ethel Arnold.jpg by Arnold in 1898]]
Arnold took a late interest in writing between 1890 and 1900 but she spent a lot of her energy in speaking tours where she would address the issue of gaining women the vote.{{cite journal|jstor=20082268|title=Ethel M. Arnold (1865-1930): New Woman Journalist|last1=Wachter|first1=Phyllis E.|journal=Victorian Periodicals Review|year=1987|volume=20|issue=3|pages=107–111}} She wrote 400 book reviews for British newspapers and her one novel "Platonics" was said to be "promising" when it was published in 1896. The novel included a lesbian attraction which is resolved when one of them is attracted to a man.{{cite book|author=Sally Ledger|title=The New Woman: Fiction and Feminism at the Fin de Siècle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e0i8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA125|year=1997|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-4093-1|page=125}} Arnold moved on from writing to take an interest in photography. She studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic in 1898 and obtained skilful results.
In 1909 she started a lecture tour of the United States. She spoke at Carnegie Hall filling the orchestra pit and her talks were well received. She returned in 1910 offering a wide range of talks on her notable ancestors and child humorists like Lewis Carroll.{{Cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/rbcmiller:@field(DOCID+rbcmilscrp6014001)|title=Ethel M. Arnold Lecture Subjects|website=memory.loc.gov|access-date=7 November 2017}} She spoke in St. Louis on April 11 at the invitation of Amabel Anderson Arnold and others. The St Louis Equal Suffrage League cited her talk as the inspiration for the organisation's formation.{{Cite book|title=History of Woman Suffrage: 1900-1920|last1=Stanton|first1=Elizabeth Cady|last2=Anthony|first2=Susan B.|last3=Gage|first3=Matilda Joslyn|last4=Harper|first4=Ida Husted|publisher=Fowler & Wells|year=1992}}
Arnold died in Totland on the Isle of Wight in 1930.Anne M. Sebba, ‘Arnold, Ethel Margaret (1864/5–1930)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58174, accessed 6 Nov 2017]
{{Arnold family tree}}
References
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Category:British lesbian writers