I have a treat in store for members of the Shelley Nation. Michael Demson’s book, Masks of Anarchy tells the story of two political radicals and the poem that brought them together: Percy Shelley and the early 20th Century union organizer he inspired, Pauline Newman. Demson, in collaboration with illustrator Summer McClinton, accomplishes this through an unusual medium: a radical comic. This gets my RPBS "Stamp of Champ, You Must Read This" recommendation! You can get the eBook for about $14 CDN and the paperback for $8. This is an unbelievable bargain. Just DO IT!
Shelley's Revolutionary Year - a review by Ciarán O'Rourke
In May of 1820, Percy Byshe Shelley, who was living at Pisa at the time, in Italy, wrote two letters to his friend Leigh Hunt. In the letter Shelley asked if Hunt knew if “any bookseller would like to publish a little volume of popular songs, wholy political, and destined to awaken and direct the imagination of reformers.“ Hunt declined to publish the collection and what a loss it was. In 1990, 170 years later, Paul Foot and Redwoods books set out to right the wrong by collecting together those works which they thought Shelley most likely would have included in the collection. It’s been 30 years since this collection was published. And now, I assume in honour of the 200th anniversary of Peterloo, Redwoods is republishing this collection. The new edition has been updated and we are now treated to an afterword by the brilliant Irish Shelley scholar Paul O’Brien. Ciarán O’Rourke is a brilliant young poet and Marxist from Ireland. He is the founder and editor of the online archive Island's Edge Poetry which features interviews with contemporary Irish poets about their work and craft. His first collection, The Buried Breath, is available from Irish Pages Press. He is based in Dublin, Ireland. Read his review of the new edition here!
Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary by Jacqueline Mulhallen
I have been meaning to recommend Percy Bysshe Shelley Poet and Revolutionary by Jacqueline Mulhallen to the Shelley Nation for a long, long time. I kept putting it off because I wanted to do the book full justice - I think it is THAT important. I can put it off no longer. Connecting modern audiences with Shelley's radical politics and philosophy is actually urgent. As no less a person than Nicholas Roe (Professor of English Literature at the University of St Andrews) says: Mulhallen's book is "Fresh, clear and compelling, this is the best compact account of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s revolutionary life currently available."
Eleanor Marx Speaks!!! The Revolutionary Percy Shelley
"We claim him as a Socialist." With these words Eleanor Marx concluded her 1888 address on the politics of Percy Bysshe Shelley. I strongly recommend this essay to those who want to understand the Real Percy Bysshe Shelley. Marx offers a perceptive, shrewd analysis of the political philosophy that underpinned Shelley's thought. And she offered it in 1888 at a time when English society was doing its level best to wipe out all memory of Shelley's radicalism. This happened almost exactly at the time referred to in Paul Foot's speech which you can read here.