Commonplace 8 George & His Circle - Eduard Bertz.
In an almost Sherlock Holmes (or Norah Ephron) moment, it seems George answered Eduard's newspaper ad (in early 1879) - a serious, intellectual was looking for someone of a similar bent with the view to mutually rewarding intercourse. Though there seems to be no written record of either the ad or the correspondence it elicited, this is how a similar account is depicted in 'The Unclassed':
'Wanted, human companionship. A young man of four-and-twenty wishes to find a congenial associate of about his own age. He is a student of ancient and modern literatures, a free-thinker in religion, a lover of art in all its forms, a hater of conventionalism. Would like to correspond in the first instance. Address O. W., City News Rooms, W.C.'
This is how the main male protagonist, Osmond Waymark, meets his male intellectual muse, Julian Casti, and so maybe this is how it happened. I am always wary of assuming that anything George made use of from his real life is 100% reliably autobiographical when it is on the page. George, himself, made it clear his characters did not speak for him - they spoke for themselves and the development of plot - which was a vehicle for ideas, not necessarily a mode of autobiography. Sometimes biographers like to knit together fragments to make a whole garment - which they then mistake for a chair.
Newspaper advertisements at this time were used for all sorts of things, so it may not have been such a bizarre way to make friends with like-minded souls, (any more than is Facebook these days) maybe especially for men who were in situations where meeting other men might be problematic.
Eduard was possibly a not-out gay - he was certainly very gay fixated, and may have been hoping to meet gay men. There is always a range of behaviours involved in sexuality of any sort and it is obvious there is more to sexual identity than who we get to have sex with. For example, Oscar Wilde represented more of what was termed 'Uranian' homosexuality than the more erotocentric variety, and David Hockney describes himself as asexual.
George was always very attractive to other men - John George Black's now well-known letters written when the two young men were at Owens together show a quite touching unselfconscious affection that John has for his more worldly hero. And George seems quite happy to discuss his private parts freely - but that's for another post. Later, he appeared more put out by Oscar Wilde's waistline than his homosexuality (George always despised chubsters), so he seems to have had a touch of the Greek sensibility when it came to man on man love - not surprising as he spent most of his life with men. And reading the Greeks.
In fact, over the course of their lives, George and Eduard hardly saw each other, and their relationship was mainly conducted by letter. But, was it a relationship of mutually supportive genuine affection? It would be fair to say, George's feelings for Eduard were 'ambivalent'. He wrote to Algernon, on July 19th 1885: Bertz writes me the most amazing letters, each one brim full of new projects. Alas, that kind of thing grows upon one. It is as deadly certain as fate that he will never do anything at all, but I suppose he cannot see that. There are certain men of who one predicts that with terrible security'. And this to sister Ellen (following a comparison between Morley Roberts and Eduard that Roberts won), on November 22nd 1886: 'Bertz has too many points of difference, & he is too morbid'. Maybe Eduard forgot to send him a birthday card. However, George is said to have kept a photo of Eduard in his wallet. Love, as the Everley Brothers so rightly sang, is strange. And George never seemed to really be fond of anyone but his family - as Gabrielle so rightly lamented.
Eduard was first in London until 1881 when he left for the settlement of Rugby in Tennessee founded by the author of 'Tom Brown's Schooldays', Thomas Hughes. The Settlement Movement was a vibrant alternative lifestyle phenomenon in late Victorian England, though this approach to living extended way beyond into the twentieth century - DH Lawrence always wanted to set up something similar amongst his group of friends, latterly at Taos, where he died.
One of the most influential advocates of this sort of colonial living was Dr Barnardo who set up various rural settlements for his orphans from the East End, and William Morris had his own version with added on Arts and Crafts workshops. One might argue that Toynbee Hall was something similar, minus the boarding element. But, among the socialist intelligentsia, Edward Carpenter was considered the guru.
His idea of a community for men from any walk of life to cohabit was part of a radical approach to sociology - the rise of 'The Intermediate Sex'. In 1906, Carpenter suggested that women who had become better educated and more independent had taken on many masculine traits, and, likewise, men, without being effeminate, were now more in touch with their feminine sides. Traditional gender roles must evolve to reflect this. 'A male soul in a female body' was how Carpenter described Lesbianism to a world struggling to accept any such thing existed. Carpenter wrote: 'Eros is a great leveller. Perhaps the true Democracy rests, more firmly than anywhere else, on a sentiment which easily passes the bounds on class and caste, and unites in the closest affection the most estranged ranks of society It is noticeable how often Uranians of good position and breeding are drawn to rougher types, as of manual workers, and frequently very permanent alliances grow up in this way, which, although not publicly acknowledged, have a decided influence on social institutions, customs and political tendencies'. Not sure George would agree with that as his own social experiment was more an aspect of his emotional nihilism; however, Carpenter's ideal is the one that prevails, at least where gender politics is concerned.
Socialism and Uranism were always ardent bedfellows, and Eduard was a socialist in his youth. Carpenter is credited as the first gay prominent writer to some out at the end of the nineteenth century. In his 'The Intermediate Sex', Carpenter gives a critique of Bertz' book: 'Whitman: ein Charakterbild', in which Eduard argues that Whitman's 'gospel of comradeship' could not be translated into a world view because Whitman's same sex preference was a form of abnormality, not a potentially universal state - and, consequently, this made it bankrupt. Carpenter suggests Eduard has misread what Whitman said about the origins of his sexual feelings - as Whitman considered himself 'normal', it follows that his homosexuality must be 'normal', too.
In 2013, the Rugby Settlement celebrated the life of its most famous librarian, Eduard Bertz, with a presentation by a Swiss librarian working for the World Trade Institute in Berne. Eduard only stayed at the settlement for two years, but he was instrumental in establishing the Thomas Hughes Library there.
This is Eduard's 'influence on the library':
'The collection was catalogued by Rugby's first librarian, a straight-laced German expatriate named Eduard Bertz. Most of Bertz' original spine labels and catalogue slips are still intact, showing that he used a weirdly modified version of Charles A. Cutter's classification system that depended on the order in which the books sat on the shelf. Bertz and his successor retained circulation records for the library books which have since become important in tracing the family history of the settlers'. http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-20520950/rugby-frozen-in-time
One interesting chapter in Eduard's life occurred not long after his June 1883 return to London from the Rugby Settlement. In a letter to Algernon, September 2nd 1883, George writes: 'I could tell a sad story about poor Bertz. To my amazement he has drifted over to the religious revivalists, has joined Blue Ribbon Army, Young Men's Christian Association, and I know not what. He spends his days & nights at Salvation Army meetings, & the like. Whether this means weakening of the brain, I can't say; I stand & marvel but protest has been in vain.' George regularly referred to anyone holding opposing views as suffering 'weakening of the brain'; it didn't mean very much - almost the nearest he gets to swearing!
The Blue Ribbon Army is celebrated in the memorable poem by the mighty William McGonagall in:
http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/a-tribute-to-mr-murphy-and-the-blue-ribbon-army
The BRA (!) was (and still is) a Baptist group devoted to Temperance - though their more recent brief is wider. It held meetings to support those who wanted to 'sign the pledge' and offered companionship as well as food and alcohol-free drink to the poor and homeless. They were based in Hoxton, near Hackney in east London, but their tendrils of love spread worldwide. The YMCA is what it is. Both are good ways to meet young folk from all walks of life, a readymade social group. Perhaps he just wanted male company when he placed that ad - and there's nowt wrong wi' that!
Ultimately, George was wrong about Eduard - who had a full life of reasonably well-regarded achievements. and is still spoken of in bicycling circles - his paper on cycling is frequently referenced in all sorts of subject specialisms, for example, transport history, and feminist and gender studies - and with some reverence. Still, we know George was a self-confessed shocking judge of character. Least of all, his own.
Within the limitations of the written evidence, it is still possible to detect a lacking in the relationship between George and Eduard. George comes across as parental at times (not his strongest suit); offers advice (like he did to his siblings); mirrors Bertz' outrage at life's little challenges whipped up into crises (an expert response from an expert in that genre), shares snide criticism and commentary, but ultimately... he looks down on him. Eduard, arguably the most intellectually similar of his circle, was still, to George, a lesser talent. One wonders if the success of the relationship was based on the fact Eduard was 'foreign' and lived in another place, and so was not over-familiar with the cultural norms on late Victorian middle class Englishness, and thus, could not be a proficient critic of our man - or a pretender to his throne.
George wrote this inscription in a copy of the works of Tennyson (a poet not strictly to his own taste):
To My Friend Eduard Bertz with a Copy of Tennyson's Poems
What poor Bertz had done to deserve this doggerel is beyond me.
 |
| Eduard in his venerable later years |
'Wanted, human companionship. A young man of four-and-twenty wishes to find a congenial associate of about his own age. He is a student of ancient and modern literatures, a free-thinker in religion, a lover of art in all its forms, a hater of conventionalism. Would like to correspond in the first instance. Address O. W., City News Rooms, W.C.'
This is how the main male protagonist, Osmond Waymark, meets his male intellectual muse, Julian Casti, and so maybe this is how it happened. I am always wary of assuming that anything George made use of from his real life is 100% reliably autobiographical when it is on the page. George, himself, made it clear his characters did not speak for him - they spoke for themselves and the development of plot - which was a vehicle for ideas, not necessarily a mode of autobiography. Sometimes biographers like to knit together fragments to make a whole garment - which they then mistake for a chair.
 |
| Potsdam c 1850 where Eduard was born. |
Newspaper advertisements at this time were used for all sorts of things, so it may not have been such a bizarre way to make friends with like-minded souls, (any more than is Facebook these days) maybe especially for men who were in situations where meeting other men might be problematic.
Eduard was possibly a not-out gay - he was certainly very gay fixated, and may have been hoping to meet gay men. There is always a range of behaviours involved in sexuality of any sort and it is obvious there is more to sexual identity than who we get to have sex with. For example, Oscar Wilde represented more of what was termed 'Uranian' homosexuality than the more erotocentric variety, and David Hockney describes himself as asexual.
George was always very attractive to other men - John George Black's now well-known letters written when the two young men were at Owens together show a quite touching unselfconscious affection that John has for his more worldly hero. And George seems quite happy to discuss his private parts freely - but that's for another post. Later, he appeared more put out by Oscar Wilde's waistline than his homosexuality (George always despised chubsters), so he seems to have had a touch of the Greek sensibility when it came to man on man love - not surprising as he spent most of his life with men. And reading the Greeks.
 |
| My dear Oscar, xxx |
One of the most influential advocates of this sort of colonial living was Dr Barnardo who set up various rural settlements for his orphans from the East End, and William Morris had his own version with added on Arts and Crafts workshops. One might argue that Toynbee Hall was something similar, minus the boarding element. But, among the socialist intelligentsia, Edward Carpenter was considered the guru.
 |
| Edward Carpenter and his partner George Merrill |
 |
| Boys being boys |
 |
| Inside the Thomas Hughes Library |
This is Eduard's 'influence on the library':
'The collection was catalogued by Rugby's first librarian, a straight-laced German expatriate named Eduard Bertz. Most of Bertz' original spine labels and catalogue slips are still intact, showing that he used a weirdly modified version of Charles A. Cutter's classification system that depended on the order in which the books sat on the shelf. Bertz and his successor retained circulation records for the library books which have since become important in tracing the family history of the settlers'. http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-20520950/rugby-frozen-in-time
One interesting chapter in Eduard's life occurred not long after his June 1883 return to London from the Rugby Settlement. In a letter to Algernon, September 2nd 1883, George writes: 'I could tell a sad story about poor Bertz. To my amazement he has drifted over to the religious revivalists, has joined Blue Ribbon Army, Young Men's Christian Association, and I know not what. He spends his days & nights at Salvation Army meetings, & the like. Whether this means weakening of the brain, I can't say; I stand & marvel but protest has been in vain.' George regularly referred to anyone holding opposing views as suffering 'weakening of the brain'; it didn't mean very much - almost the nearest he gets to swearing!
The Blue Ribbon Army is celebrated in the memorable poem by the mighty William McGonagall in:
http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/a-tribute-to-mr-murphy-and-the-blue-ribbon-army
The BRA (!) was (and still is) a Baptist group devoted to Temperance - though their more recent brief is wider. It held meetings to support those who wanted to 'sign the pledge' and offered companionship as well as food and alcohol-free drink to the poor and homeless. They were based in Hoxton, near Hackney in east London, but their tendrils of love spread worldwide. The YMCA is what it is. Both are good ways to meet young folk from all walks of life, a readymade social group. Perhaps he just wanted male company when he placed that ad - and there's nowt wrong wi' that!
Ultimately, George was wrong about Eduard - who had a full life of reasonably well-regarded achievements. and is still spoken of in bicycling circles - his paper on cycling is frequently referenced in all sorts of subject specialisms, for example, transport history, and feminist and gender studies - and with some reverence. Still, we know George was a self-confessed shocking judge of character. Least of all, his own.
.jpg) |
| Friend sans benefits to Eduard |
George wrote this inscription in a copy of the works of Tennyson (a poet not strictly to his own taste):
To My Friend Eduard Bertz with a Copy of Tennyson's Poems
What poor Bertz had done to deserve this doggerel is beyond me.
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