Edith Simcox

Edith Jemima Simcox (21 August 1844 – 15 September 1901) was a British writer, trade union activist, and early feminist. In 1875 she and Emma Paterson became the first women to attend the Trades Union Congress as delegates. She lived at 60 Dean Street, London. From 1879-1882 she was a member of the London School Board representing Westminster.^[1]

A lesbian, she had an admiring and passionate, yet unrequited relationship with the older George Eliot.^[2] George Augustus Simcox and William Henry Simcox were her brothers.

Works

• Natural Law: An Essay in Ethics (1877)
• George Eliot. Her life and works (1881) article in the Nineteenth Century
• Episodes in the Lives of Men, Women and Lovers (1882) fiction
• The Capacity of Women (1887) article in the Nineteenth Century
• Primitive Civilizations: or Outlines of the History of Ownership in Archaic Communities (1894)
• Diary of a Shirtmaker (1998) near-autobiographical, edited by C. M. Fulmer and M. E. Barfield

References

1. "London School Board Elections". Daily News. 29 November 1879.
2. Bodenheimer, Rosemarie (1994), The Real Life of Mary Ann Evans: George Eliot, Her Letters and Fiction, Cornell University Press, ISBN 0-8014-8184-8

Further reading

• K. A. McKenzie (1961) Edith Simcox and George Eliot
• Rosemarie Bodenheimer, 'Autobiography in Fragments: The Elusive Life of Edith Simcox', Victorian Studies 44 (Spring 2002): 399-422

External links

• Edith Jemima Simcox biography prepared by professors at Pepperdine University
• Works by or about Edith Simcox in libraries (WorldCat catalog)