WEBVTT - Alexander Main and Edith Simcox: The Passionate Worshipers 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:16.159 partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.319 second season of Criminalia. This season, we're exploring the lives 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.400 and motivations of some of the most notorious stalkers throughout history. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.639 I'm Maria Tremarqui and I'm Holly Fry and today we 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:28.360 are going to be talking about one of the leading 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.680 English novelists of the nineteenth century, George Elliott. Don't let 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:34.840 that name fool you. If you don't know, we're gonna 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.320 give you a spoiler right now. George Elliott was a woman. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:46.760 There are something like three dozen plus biographies about George Elliott. 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.080 But here's the thing, there are still questions about her. 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.839 We don't know everything, but we do know quite a bit. 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:56.280 Elliott was born as Mary Ann Evans in November of 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:00.720 eighteen nineteen in the English countryside. But in eighteen fifties 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.880 she moved to London, and that's really where her story, 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.440 certainly as a public figure, truly begins. Absolutely so, her 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.120 move to London is what kicked off the time in 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.880 her life when Mary Anne Evans transformed from her father's 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.160 quote little Wench into the urban intellectual that we know 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.280 her as today. A few years later, in London, in 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:26.480 about eighteen seven, Mary Anne published her first work fiction, 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.679 which was called Scenes of Clerical Life in Blackwood's magazine. 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.600 And it's in this moment she became George Elliott, which 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:36.880 was the name she continued to go by even after 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.400 everyone knew that she was using a pseudonym. Yes, Scenes 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.399 of Clerical Life, by the way, is actually three short 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.200 stories that initially ran separately in the magazine, and now 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.000 they're kind of grouped together as one larger piece of fiction. 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.360 And each story features a character that is a member 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.920 of the clergy. It's all set in the same fictional town, 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.680 which is Milby. That clergy character isn't always like the 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.240 most prominent or important character in the story, but each 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.160 one has a member the clergy, and those three together 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.120 were eventually published as a two volume set under the 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:13.160 title Scenes of Clerical Life Outside of the Magazine. Also 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.040 in eighteen fifty nine. Just two years later, um George 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.560 Elliott turned forty, and when she turned forty, she also 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.480 published her first novel, which became an instant best seller. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.800 It was known that even Queen Victoria was a fan 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.560 of this novel, and because of this instant best seller, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.160 um one of her best known works, in Milana Philoss, 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.720 was published almost immediately after. So you may have some 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.960 questions because it is probably pretty clear to you by 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.800 this point that George Elliot's life was not really at 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.880 all like most women at this time. The Victorian era was, 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.080 of course, a time when women were supposed to be 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.520 the mistresses of the household. They were often called and 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.040 we have used this phrase on the show before and 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.520 we likely will again. The Angel in the House, Virginia 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.720 Wolf described these so called old angels as quote, immensely sympathetic, 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:09.080 immensely charming, and utterly unselfish. I am reminded of Queen 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.079 Victoria's writing where she kind of equates like being a woman, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.840 even if you are the ruler of an empire, at 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:16.960 the end of the day, you're still a woman, you know. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.040 She compares like, once you become pregnant, you're just like livestock. 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:25.960 Like she it's a great equalizer being a woman up. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:31.000 Actually right, But these angels also did not have the 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.720 right to vote, sue, or own property. Also super weird 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:36.520 when you consider that the head of the empire was 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:41.080 a woman. And during the emerging Industrial Revolution in England, 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:46.760 many of these women worked under abysmal and dangerous conditions. Elliott, 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.640 on the other hand, was really pursuing a more radical life, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.280 taking a role that at that point was strictly the 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.200 domain of men. She proposed marriage to a renowned palling math, 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:01.160 Herbert spencer Um, and he ultimately did reject her. But 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.040 she also then stirred up scandal when she and the 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.880 writer George Henry Lewis began a romance. George, by the way, 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.760 was married to a woman named Agnes Jarvis. But when 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.960 George and Elliott met in eighteen fifty one, by eighteen 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.000 fifty four they'd moved in together. And here's the thing, 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.160 that moved in together openly while Louis was still married. 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:26.320 And this was such a big deal that Elliott's female 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.200 friends refused to see her anymore because seeing her might 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.040 tarnish their own reputations. It was was that big um. 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.039 Elliot and Lewis were together for more than twenty five years, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.640 right up until he passed away in eighteen seventy eight. Yeah, 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.360 I always love to remind people that when we think 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:47.240 of the state and formal and rule, laden periods that 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.080 have gone before us, there were always things like this 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:54.480 going on. It's never quite as codified as you may think. 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.400 So we really should talk for a minute about why 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.320 Mary Ann Evans chose to publish her work under the 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.679 more masculine sounding pen name of George Elliott. She believed 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:10.000 that when female novelists wrote anything other than lighthearted romance novels, 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.400 that they just weren't taken seriously. And she is not 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.360 the first. We have a few examples, certainly, of other 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.839 female authors who wrote secretly as males. In the early 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.520 nineteenth century, Amentine Lucille roy du duvon Ne Dupin wrote 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.200 under the male pseudonym, Oh, and I love her George Son. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.599 I'm so glad she goes by her pseudonym, because I'm 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.760 also so glad you were the one say her real name. 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:41.479 She's a favorite of mine. The Bronte sisters, also Charlotte, Emily, 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.599 and Anne, very commonly known, first published their works under 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.720 the male pseudonyms of Kerr Ellis and Acton Bell, respectively, 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.880 Though Luisa May Alcott's Little Women, which is often considered 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.040 her best known work, was published under her own name. 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:00.440 She also used to the more ambiguous name am erred 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:04.960 to write her gothic thrillers. They were considered let's say, 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:09.680 unladylike for a nineteenth century female writer or reader, so 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.240 she did not use alcohol. But a fascinating aside to 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.920 her story is that her secret pseudonym actually wasn't discovered 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.159 until the nineteen forties, if you can believe it, and 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:23.360 it was a rare book dealer together with the librarian 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.039 who figured that out. I think you've just written like 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.080 a fabulous new thriller. It's the book dealer in librarian 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.080 and they solve literary crimes of history. Could be great. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.080 I know what my next project is. I would watch 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.760 that show. As for why so many women writers took 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.840 this particular path, we're going to use Charlotte Bronte as 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.720 an illustrative example. So in late eighteen thirty six, when 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.760 Charlotte was just twenty years old, she sent a selection 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.719 of her poetry to poet laureate Robert Southey, and soThe 0:06:55.920 --> 0:07:00.480 responded with the following very sexist quote quote literature cannot 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:02.920 be the business of a woman's life, and it ought 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:10.520 not to be soup. Yeah. In fact, I really have 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:16.280 no response to In fact, Elliott herself wrote an anonymous 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.920 essay that she called Silly Novels by Leady Novelists, where 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.720 she criticized the works of her female contemporary authors, saying 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.760 that they were all confusing We quote vagueness for depth, 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:33.320 bombast for eloquence, and affectation for originality. She generally considered 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.880 this genre to be full of those cliches and far 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:41.880 fetched romantic endings that we all know from Hollywood stories. Um. 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.800 But then there was also perhaps her biggest accusation about it. 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:51.640 She believed that they made educated women ultimately look foolish. 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.880 Uh yeah, not so much in the women Uplifting Women category. 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.800 On this women don't need to be educated, they need 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:05.080 to be at home. Not alternate forms of literature is valid. 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:12.360 It's a little snooty, by which I mean it's completely snooty. Today, 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.480 of course, we still see modern female authors using male pseudonyms. 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.400 This is not exclusive to the Victorian era. For example, 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.840 there's a contemporary female author, Nora Roberts, who comes to mind. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.640 She's certainly not the only one, but she has written 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.480 more than two hundred romance as well as crime novels, 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.560 but she uses the pseudonym J. D. Rob when she 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:38.319 writes her suspense novels. Gender bias was alive in Victorian 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.319 literary circles certainly, but it has yet to be eliminated 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.959 from today's publishing industry, literary circles, and even among audiences. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.840 So using pseudonyms to get these works published, whether it 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.440 was Victorian era or even today, Um, it is interesting 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.520 and we could spend a ton of time talking about it, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.000 but we're not here to talk about that. We're here 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.520 to talk about George Elliott's biggest and I'm going to 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:07.040 quote unquote this here admirers, UM. And they were Alexander 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:13.360 Maine and Edith Simcox. And that's right. Elliott attracted two stalkers. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.520 So we're gonna take a quick break and then when 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.200 we come back, we're going to talk about how Elliott 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:36.199 met Alexander Maine. Welcome back to Criminalia. So this all 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.160 started when a man named Alexander Maine asked George Elliott 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:45.040 a very simple question in the summer of eightev one, 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.280 and this was while she was working on her very 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.199 famous novel Middle March. George Elliott received a short letter 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.679 from a young Scott named Alexander Main. So, Alexander Main 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.000 a little bit about him before we get into his letter. UM. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.040 He was about thirty year years old when he started 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.520 his correspondence with Elliott. He lived with his elderly widowed 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:07.880 mother in a really small town on the eastern coast 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.880 of Scotland. And what we know of him is that 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:15.320 he gave lectures on various literary subjects to grad students 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.040 and perhaps undergrad as well, but he didn't really share 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.560 much of his occupation with her. UM. We also know 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:26.040 that he was really not very well off financially UM, 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.440 and he would wait for Elliott's novels to be published 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.520 in discounted editions and then he would buy and read them. 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.840 It said that he preferred to walk along the cliffs 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:35.680 and sit on the beach, and this is where he 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.560 would read these books, and he would read them aloud 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.360 to himself. So Alexander had a pretty simple and a 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.280 fairly benign question in his initial correspondence with the author, 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:52.160 what was the correct pronunciation of Romola? Elliott, super pleased 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.559 that someone would ask about the title of a novel 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.760 that she had published years earlier, that was back in 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.840 eighteen sixty three, wrote back with the correct pronunciation, letting 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.560 him know that you stress the first. Oh, and we 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.880 actually have an excerpt from her correspondence, and you might 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.840 imagine when you hear this that later she regretted the 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.760 final sentence here, which is quote, my dear sir, I 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.600 am grateful for, indeed deeply affected by your assurance that 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.520 my writings have been long precious to you and others. 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.200 I have not much strength and time for correspondence, but 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.480 I shall always be glad to hear from you when 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.800 you have anything in your mind, which it will be 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:33.280 a solace to you to say to me that at 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:37.000 some foreshadowing. So that opened a door she could not close, 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:42.200 and opened like a black hole anyway. She also went 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.000 on to share some of her thoughts beyond her own work, 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.280 specifically about Florentine literature, as well as Sir Walter Scott, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.880 the Scottish historical novelist and poets, and instead of moving 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.040 along or just sending a quick thank you, Maine replied 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.280 almost instantly with another letter. This time it was much longer. 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:06.240 Within its eleven pages, he told Elliott, quote, you are 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.120 doing a work in and upon this age such that 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:14.440 future generations shall rejoice that you have lived, laying it 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:18.520 on pretty thick. Alexander called the novels prologue we quote, 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.760 the sublimest piece of writing, thinking, and historical word painting, 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.480 all in one that the pen of a human being 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:30.240 has ever yet achieved in prose. This letter has since 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:38.680 been referred to as Maine's Rhapsody of Romola. Sorry, it's 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.040 quite rhapsodic. I think that's an apt name. I think 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:44.680 so too, And I also was thinking, can you imagine 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.520 if this man had email? Oh no, I mean he's 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:55.160 already writing back pretty quickly, one quick interjection about that novel. Today, 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.200 she's probably best remembered for writing the now classic books 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:04.199 Middle March and Silas Marner. Yet these days is considered 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.800 one of the least known among her works. But at 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.560 the time she received a then record payment for her novel, 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.160 and it was fairly popular. So these letters from Scotland, 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.360 they just kept coming, and they began coming at a 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:24.480 rather extraordinary rate. Again and again Alexander Main wrote Elliott 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.240 long heartfelt letters, and then he would follow up with 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.720 letters of a very different tone, demanding that she reassure 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.199 him that he had not offended her with his previous letters. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.319 And after that then his letters would turn into apologies, 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:41.880 and this cycle continued where he would kind of sense 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.800 he had gone too far, asked her to tell him 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:46.839 that he had not gone too far, and then apologize 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.920 in case he had, and the cycle starts right. She 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.720 tried to distance herself from her admirer, except that is 0:13:56.520 --> 0:14:01.360 when she did not um in act, because strangers would 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.800 often physically touch her when they encountered her, in particular 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.160 her cloak, and she allowed it and seemed okay with it. 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.200 As these things played out, some of her contemporaries kind 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.440 of thought Elliott was encouraging that sort of closeness from 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:19.640 her fans. Alexander continued to write, of course and um. 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.640 In one of his next letters, he praised Elliott and 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.720 specifically praised her poem The Spanish Gypsy, telling her, and 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.680 I'm gonna quote this. I have felt myself face to 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:35.120 face with the highest in humanity by reading that poem. 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:39.960 So Elliott Radiant in this feedback wrote back, which we 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.400 all know she shouldn't have done what she did. Um. 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.440 It was not a simple thank you. She wrote to 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:50.480 Maine to tell him that he through the understood her 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.840 intentions in that poem and that she believed he clearly 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:59.720 had perfect insight into her writing, also encouraging him. Oh 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.640 Joe Orge, Okay, so in Alexander's mind, this was his moment. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.640 He wrote her back with a proposal for Elliott, he 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.960 wanted to do her writing justice by turning the wider 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:15.360 public onto her work and wisdom, and specifically highlighting her poetry. 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.520 At that point, she was known pretty much as a novelist. 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.000 But he was like, people need to be reading your poems, girl, 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:24.080 and he wanted to do this by compiling them all 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.760 in a single volume. He would then edit it. And 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:29.880 he told her that she had done for the novel 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.600 what Shakespeare did for the drama. So he was full 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:38.960 of praise and then wanted to edit her poetry anthology. 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:45.400 And yeah, here's the thing. Elliott agreed to do it. Um, 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:47.800 there are a few things here that may have been 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:52.600 going on when she made that decision, and it probably 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.960 wasn't the like the chapter after chapter of letters that 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.480 she was getting from Alexander m So, first, there's no 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.080 doubt that she saw that this had potential as a 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.640 marketing tool for her novels, because it did. But then 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.120 there's the harder piece to it, which is the more 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:13.440 emotional piece. So George, her longtime partner that we mentioned earlier, 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:18.880 once referred to Elliott as having quote a shy, shrinking, 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:24.120 ambitious nature and added that she was susceptible to crippling 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.680 self doubt. So think about what it must have been 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.320 like for her to be trying to distance herself from 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.800 Alexander main while at the same time he's a man 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.480 whose words have brought her to tears and made her 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.680 feel validated as a writer. So this is where John 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.880 Blackwood enters the scene. John was Elliott's publisher, and when 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.000 Alexander became the editor of the Elliott Collection, which was 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:51.320 titled Wise, Witty and Tender Sayings in Prose and Verse 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.840 selected from the works of George Elliott, John was also 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.479 going to publish that work. John wasn't really fond of Alexander, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.360 and he dismissed him as a sycophant. So privately he 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.720 had a few nicknames for him, such as the gusher 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:12.720 and the worshiper of Genius, the gutsher Ah. Yeah, So 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:17.560 after their first encounter, John referred to Alexander as again 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.080 another quote, a little fellow, dark with bright, clear looking 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.560 eyes who and this is the best part of the 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:26.800 quote and maybe the best part of this episode for 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:31.040 me um that Alexander used his knife in a dangerous 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:37.120 manner at lunch. We don't know the details of my imagination. 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.399 Has taken it from me here, Sarah. Yes. John also 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.440 wrote once to his nephew, who was a fellow publisher, saying, 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.840 my dear Willie, the worshiper of genius appeared soon after 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.879 eleven today and has just left. This has destroyed my 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:57.199 day's work. You everybody who hangs around your desk for 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:03.000 too long. Yeah, so a distraction as well as being 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.720 a little too a brilliant in his praise. So Blackwood's 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.399 not a fan. Regardless of all of this, though, and 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.600 John not enjoying working with him, Alexander did get his 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.080 collection published, and of course he dedicated the book to 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.800 Elliott in we quote recognition of a genius as original 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.280 as it is profound, and a morality as pure as 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.919 it is impassioned, And in the preface he declared that 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.600 she had and again we're quoting forever sanctified the novel 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.440 by making it the vehicle of the grandest and most 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:44.280 uncompromising moral truth, just like Shakespeare. So so if we 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.600 fast forward this recognition of genius to the I have 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.639 modern day criticism. Um, there's a journalist named Rebecca Meade 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:55.080 who writes for The New Yorker, and she is one 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.000 of Elliott's biographers and she's a critic as well, and 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:03.560 she summed this in such a way. Alexander's book is 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:10.080 the nineteenth century equivalent of the refrigerator Magnet, which I 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.760 felt like I learned so much about that book just 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.080 from that one sentence. And the reason for this assessment 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.080 that me gives is that poetry was not really Elliott's strength. 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.240 The wit and wisdom promised in the title never really 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.439 delivers in the text. Yeah, she wants to give a 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.240 really great lecture where she talked about seeing a refrigerator 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.800 magnet with a George Elliott quote on it about I 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.240 don't remember the exact quote, but it's basically like about 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.359 your life's work can start later on, like you can 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.479 achieve the actually know exactly what you're talking about. And uh, 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.840 And how she was reading this compilation about that magnet, 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.639 Sure she was. She was like, I knew it. But 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:54.359 here's the thing. That compendium was very popular in its time. 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.359 It was published in multiple editions. It sold out. Unfortunately, 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.520 though Alexander story kind of ends for us here. For 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.760 all we know he had a long, successful life or 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.040 the opposite after his involvement with getting this book of 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:12.439 poetry and wit published. But the details outside of his 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.959 admiration of Elliott, as far as it goes in his biography, 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.879 have really not been well preserved. Let's go ahead and 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.000 take a quick sponsor break right now, and when we 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.199 come back, we're going to talk about who Edith Simcox 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:40.600 was in relation to Elliott. Welcome back to Criminalia. So 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.080 we've talked about Alexander Main, but he was not George 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:49.000 Elliot's only admirer. Meet Edith Simcox. Edith Simcox is perhaps 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.480 best remembered as one of Elliott's most passionate admirers. But 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.800 if you were living in the Victorian era in England, 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.719 you would have been familiar with Edith's works or at 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.720 least her name, because of her passion for her work. 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.560 Edith had an amazing life and that is outside of 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:10.159 her nearly lifelong infatuation with George Elliott. Um. She promoted 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.119 women's suffrage and was active in the trade union movement. 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.080 She was a shirtmaker with Hamilton's and Company, which is 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.480 a company that she established with a woman named Mary Hamilton's. 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.960 They ran their business as a women only co op 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:27.159 that provided women with employment under humane conditions, which was 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.760 not a common thing in Victorian England. She was really 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:34.520 just engaged in making her community better. Yeah, she was 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:39.040 an advocate for workers rights for women, really admirable work, 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:42.280 and she also worked as an author and a critic. 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.480 She herself, as many of the authors we've talked about, 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.000 often wrote under a male pseudonym. Hers was h. Laurine, 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.600 and she was a friend and an admirer of George Eliot, 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:56.119 calling her, we quote the love passion of my life, 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.479 which sounds like a very intense relationship, except there was 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.800 no relationship between these two women other than a fairly 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:09.120 superficial one. So what we do know about Edith and 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:13.320 George Eliott is all basically from Edith's personal journal, and 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.280 she started that in eighteen seventy six and she wrote 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.480 it until about a few months before her death, which 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.880 was in nineteen hundred. Um. Although many of her private 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:27.600 entries are about things that are really mundane, like business issues, handling, 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:31.879 personnel problems, dealing with customers, not all the entries are 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.120 like that, though it's also where she detailed and she 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.840 worked through emotional turmoil and frustration from her love for 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.320 Elliott that was not returned. And as early as the 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:46.280 very first entry in her journal, she sensed she was 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:48.920 on a mission to and I mean quote that first entry, 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:53.080 a mission to love rather than to be loved, and 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.159 she called her journal the autobiography of a shirt Maker. 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.640 So Edith and Elliott did meet in a teen seventy 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.040 two and shortly after Edith had written a glowing review 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:07.280 of Middle March, and then Elliott invited her to one 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:10.680 of her renowned parties, and Edith quickly became kind of 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.199 part of Elliot's circle. But while Elliott was open to 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:17.879 developing a friendship initially, it said that she began to 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:23.040 grow uncomfortable with Edith's intense professions of devotion. Though she 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.680 was quite successful before meeting Elliott, Edith referred to Elliott 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.040 as her quote idol, and attributed all of her late 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:33.159 accomplishments to Elliott's influence, even though this was not a 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:37.880 person that was actually in her life in any significant way, 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:42.080 and she was highly successful without Elliott. You know, none 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:44.159 of this needed to be there, but yet it was. 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:49.080 And three days after Elliott's death, which happened in December 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:52.639 of eighty, Edith wrote in her journal, um, and this 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:55.439 is a quote. I hope to build your monument in 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.520 the lettering of words and deeds to come. And in 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:01.320 an effort to create a tribute to Elliott, the complete 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:04.919 edition of her Autobiography of a Shirtmaker was published with 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:09.360 the title changed to um a Monument to the Memory 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:13.400 of George Elliott, and many hailed it as a monument 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:18.159 to George Elliott. After her death, one literary biographer named 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:22.439 Lyndall Gordon dubbed Elliott as a quote wise angel. And 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:26.680 then two years after Elliot's death, Edith published another tribute 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:29.960 to her. This was titled Episodes in the Lives of Men, 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:33.479 Women and Lovers, and the work, which was made up 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:38.199 of eleven sort of loosely connected tales, indirectly explores her 0:24:38.280 --> 0:24:42.320 love for Elliott, but only in fictional terms. This ends 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:46.440 where Edith and Elliott have a relationship or lack of relationship. 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:51.000 Edith passed away in September of nineteen o one, and 0:24:51.240 --> 0:24:54.879 she hoped to be buried at Highgate Cemetery, which was 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:57.680 where George Eliot was, and she hoped to be buried 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:01.040 near her instead, though she was buried with her mother, 0:25:01.280 --> 0:25:03.520 with whom she had lived with from most of her life. 0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:09.800 So those are George Elliott's two stalkers, neither of whom 0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:16.160 seemed particularly dangerous, yet just uncomfortable. Right. That means it's 0:25:16.160 --> 0:25:18.919 time for the chaser. It is it is time for 0:25:18.920 --> 0:25:21.400 the chaser. Why don't you take it to it? Of course, 0:25:24.240 --> 0:25:27.680 and thinking about George Elliott, what really struck me in 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:30.720 both of these stories, but particularly in the Alexander main story, 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:34.960 was this kind of duality in her reception to them, 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:37.280 that in some ways she felt uncomfortable, but in other 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:40.680 ways she clearly, I mean, like any human enjoyed praise 0:25:41.520 --> 0:25:45.680 and you know, felt validated by attentions in some ways. Right, 0:25:45.680 --> 0:25:49.760