Godwin_lives
@pamelaclemit.bsky.social
Professor of Humanities, QMUL | Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford | General Editor of the OUP Letters of William Godwin | Writer on the edge | Northumbrian I Trainspotter | website: pamelaclemit.wordpress.com
R. S. Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’, from Laboratories of the Spirit (1975) #NationalPoetryDay
October 2, 2025 at 3:39 PM
R. S. Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’, from Laboratories of the Spirit (1975) #NationalPoetryDay
Volume IV of the OUP edition of William Godwin’s letters, now at press, includes an extensive description of his 1816 visit to Abbotsford, together with four letters to Sir Walter Scott (d. OTD 1832), all written in 1824, the same year that Edwin Landseer painted this portrait of Scott at home.
September 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Volume IV of the OUP edition of William Godwin’s letters, now at press, includes an extensive description of his 1816 visit to Abbotsford, together with four letters to Sir Walter Scott (d. OTD 1832), all written in 1824, the same year that Edwin Landseer painted this portrait of Scott at home.
Volume IV of the OUP edition of William Godwin’s letters, now at press, includes an extensive description of his 1816 visit to Abbotsford, together with four letters to Sir Walter Scott (b. OTD 1771), all written in 1824, the same year that Edwin Landseer painted this portrait of Scott at home.
August 15, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Volume IV of the OUP edition of William Godwin’s letters, now at press, includes an extensive description of his 1816 visit to Abbotsford, together with four letters to Sir Walter Scott (b. OTD 1771), all written in 1824, the same year that Edwin Landseer painted this portrait of Scott at home.
#OTD 8 July 1822: Godwin’s son-in-law Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns in the Gulf of La Spezia, leaving many of his poems unpublished and his papers in disarray. What happened next? Read all about it in my piece for @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
July 8, 2025 at 9:26 AM
#OTD 8 July 1822: Godwin’s son-in-law Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns in the Gulf of La Spezia, leaving many of his poems unpublished and his papers in disarray. What happened next? Read all about it in my piece for @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
Father's Day again. My father in 1992. It will always be your day, Dad.
June 15, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Father's Day again. My father in 1992. It will always be your day, Dad.
#OTD 26 May 1794: publication of the radical polymath William Godwin's most celebrated novel, Things As They Are; or, the Adventures of Caleb Williams, a tale of flight & pursuit, & a searing analysis of all the truth-twisting deceptions by which authoritarian governments maintain power.
May 26, 2025 at 12:06 PM
#OTD 26 May 1794: publication of the radical polymath William Godwin's most celebrated novel, Things As They Are; or, the Adventures of Caleb Williams, a tale of flight & pursuit, & a searing analysis of all the truth-twisting deceptions by which authoritarian governments maintain power.
Anarchy in the UK: OUP hoists its standard for radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice, 1793, & Caleb Williams, 1794; & (in timespan of this volume) Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century, Of Population, History of the Commonwealth of England; & many more works. At press.
May 3, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Anarchy in the UK: OUP hoists its standard for radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice, 1793, & Caleb Williams, 1794; & (in timespan of this volume) Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century, Of Population, History of the Commonwealth of England; & many more works. At press.
From A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (1896). Every time I read this poem, I hear the voice of the late, great Jon Stallworthy (1935-2014) reciting it from memory. #Easter2025
April 20, 2025 at 9:31 AM
From A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (1896). Every time I read this poem, I hear the voice of the late, great Jon Stallworthy (1935-2014) reciting it from memory. #Easter2025
Another year, another birthday. The English artist, letter-writer, and bluestocking Mary Delany (1700-1788) began creating her ‘Paper Mosaiks’ at the age of 71.
April 15, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Another year, another birthday. The English artist, letter-writer, and bluestocking Mary Delany (1700-1788) began creating her ‘Paper Mosaiks’ at the age of 71.
#OTD 7 Apr. 1836: death of the radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice, 1793, Caleb Williams, 1794, & many other works; husband of #MaryWollstonecraft, the early advocate of women’s rights; father of #MaryShelley, author of The Last Man. He lives on in his writings—& in theirs.
April 7, 2025 at 10:52 AM
#OTD 7 Apr. 1836: death of the radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice, 1793, Caleb Williams, 1794, & many other works; husband of #MaryWollstonecraft, the early advocate of women’s rights; father of #MaryShelley, author of The Last Man. He lives on in his writings—& in theirs.
#OTD 29 March 1797: marriage of William Godwin, author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), at St Pancras Old Church, Somers Town. The rest is history.
March 29, 2025 at 10:13 AM
#OTD 29 March 1797: marriage of William Godwin, author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), at St Pancras Old Church, Somers Town. The rest is history.
#OTD 3 March 1756: birth of radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice (1793), a founding work of philosophical anarchism, Caleb Williams (1794), the first detective novel, & many other works – & letter writer extraordinaire.
March 3, 2025 at 10:31 AM
#OTD 3 March 1756: birth of radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice (1793), a founding work of philosophical anarchism, Caleb Williams (1794), the first detective novel, & many other works – & letter writer extraordinaire.
What did the radical polymath #WilliamGodwin do on #Valentine’sDay, 1793? He published his love letter to humanity, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, in which he denounced government corruption & envisaged a new society based on justice, equality, tolerance, & mutual moral accountability. 1/2
February 14, 2025 at 10:37 AM
What did the radical polymath #WilliamGodwin do on #Valentine’sDay, 1793? He published his love letter to humanity, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, in which he denounced government corruption & envisaged a new society based on justice, equality, tolerance, & mutual moral accountability. 1/2
Happy New Year to all! One of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moments, captured in 1932. Mind how you go.
December 31, 2024 at 8:17 PM
Happy New Year to all! One of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moments, captured in 1932. Mind how you go.
Thomas Hardy’s great end-of-year lyric poem, ‘The Darkling Thrush’, was originally published in The Graphic on 29 December 1900 – though a deleted 1899 on the manuscript suggests he may have written it earlier.
December 29, 2024 at 10:33 AM
Thomas Hardy’s great end-of-year lyric poem, ‘The Darkling Thrush’, was originally published in The Graphic on 29 December 1900 – though a deleted 1899 on the manuscript suggests he may have written it earlier.
One of Thomas Hardy's wartime poems, first published in the Times, 24 December 1915. #ChristmasEve
December 24, 2024 at 5:03 PM
One of Thomas Hardy's wartime poems, first published in the Times, 24 December 1915. #ChristmasEve
#OTD 1 December 1817: publication of #WilliamGodwin’s Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century, his only novel to be published in Edinburgh. ‘Here is for once a Scottish writer, that they cannot say has anything of the Scotchman about him’, Godwin wrote to his publisher Archibald Constable. 1/2
December 1, 2024 at 10:34 AM
#OTD 1 December 1817: publication of #WilliamGodwin’s Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century, his only novel to be published in Edinburgh. ‘Here is for once a Scottish writer, that they cannot say has anything of the Scotchman about him’, Godwin wrote to his publisher Archibald Constable. 1/2
7. I may post more on events, publications, personalities, relating to the volume to keep up my spirits during the production process. [END]
November 25, 2024 at 12:28 PM
7. I may post more on events, publications, personalities, relating to the volume to keep up my spirits during the production process. [END]
2. It will join Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Godwin’s letters, both edited by moi-même, and published in 2011 and 2014 respectively. (Volume 3 is still in progress.)
November 25, 2024 at 12:22 PM
2. It will join Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Godwin’s letters, both edited by moi-même, and published in 2011 and 2014 respectively. (Volume 3 is still in progress.)
7. I may post more on events, publications, & personalities, relating to the volume to keep up my spirits during the production process. [END]
November 25, 2024 at 12:16 PM
7. I may post more on events, publications, & personalities, relating to the volume to keep up my spirits during the production process. [END]
RED-LETTER DAY: this afternoon I delivered the completed manuscript of The Letters of William Godwin, Volume IV: 1816-1828, to my editor at OUP. Contains 404 letters. Pictured (1) the last steps of a ten-year intellectual journey (2) engraving of Godwin by WH Lizars, after William Nicholson, 1816.
November 14, 2024 at 6:21 PM
RED-LETTER DAY: this afternoon I delivered the completed manuscript of The Letters of William Godwin, Volume IV: 1816-1828, to my editor at OUP. Contains 404 letters. Pictured (1) the last steps of a ten-year intellectual journey (2) engraving of Godwin by WH Lizars, after William Nicholson, 1816.
Here is photo of the published text of the entire letter, with apologies for indifferent quality. Hope this helps. (Source: The Letters of William Godwin, Volume I, ed. Pamela Clemit, OUP, 2011.)
November 11, 2024 at 11:32 AM
Here is photo of the published text of the entire letter, with apologies for indifferent quality. Hope this helps. (Source: The Letters of William Godwin, Volume I, ed. Pamela Clemit, OUP, 2011.)
'Drummer Hodge', by Thomas Hardy, published in 1899, the year of the start of the Second Boer War. #LestWeForget
November 10, 2024 at 1:11 PM
'Drummer Hodge', by Thomas Hardy, published in 1899, the year of the start of the Second Boer War. #LestWeForget
The Last Boat In, by Charles Napier Hemy, 1878. South Shields Museum & Art Gallery.
November 9, 2024 at 8:19 PM
The Last Boat In, by Charles Napier Hemy, 1878. South Shields Museum & Art Gallery.
The second and third pages of the first surviving letter, dated 13 July 1796, from the radical polymath William Godwin to the early advocate of women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft. The rest is history.
November 8, 2024 at 11:44 AM
The second and third pages of the first surviving letter, dated 13 July 1796, from the radical polymath William Godwin to the early advocate of women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft. The rest is history.