Edward Bibbins Aveling (1849 - 1898)

Born 29 Nov 1849 in Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Died 2 Aug 1898 at age 48 in Battersea, London, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Edward Aveling is Notable.

Edward Bibbins Aveling (29 November 1849 – 2 August 1898) was a prominent English biology instructor, pseudonymous playwright, and popular writer on Darwinian evolution, atheism, and socialism, the author of numerous books and pamphlets, and a founding member of the Socialist League and the Independent Labour Party. For many years he was the life partner of Eleanor Marx, another prominent socialist writer and the daughter of Karl Marx.

Edward Aveling was born on 29 November 1849 in Stoke Newington, the fifth of eight children of Rev. Thomas William Baxter Aveling (1815–1884), a Congregationalist minister, and his wife, Mary Ann, née Goodall (d. 1877), daughter of Thomas Goodall, farmer and innkeeper of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.^[1][2]

In 1851 Edward was living with his family at Nelson Terrace, Stoke Newington, Middlesex.^[3] He attended Taunton School, and in 1867 began to study medicine at University College London. He graduated with a BSc degree in Zoology in 1870.^[1] In 1871 he was living with his parents and siblings at Hackney, Middlesex.^[4] Aveling began teaching biology and lecturing in science at King's College London, but was unable to advance due to his atheism and avowed leftist views. He subsequently lectured on Anatomy and Biology at the London Hospital until 1882.^[1]

On 30 July 1872, Edward Aveling married the heiress Isabel Campbell Frank (22 November 1849 - September 1892) in Islington, London. The marriage lasted only two years before they separated amicably. According to Aveling, the cause of the split was that Isabel could not abide his atheist views, although there were rumours that Aveling had married her for her money.^[1][5]

In 1880, Aveling delivered over a hundred freethought lectures and was made a vice-president of the National Secular Society. He edited the secular humanist magazine The Freethinker when its founding editor George William Foote was imprisoned for blasphemy in 1883.^[1]

In 1884, Aveling became the life partner of Eleanor "Tussy" Marx, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, and thus he entered the inner circle of British socialism.^[1] Eleanor had been born in London on 16 January 1855, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Karl Marx and his wife Jenny, née von Westphalen. Jenny von Westphalen. Jenny von Westphalen was born in Salzwedel and had moved to Trier with her family in 1816. Her paternal grandfather Christian Heinrich Philipp Westphal had been ennobled in 1764 as Christian Heinrich Philipp Edler von Westphalen by Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick for his military services.^[6][7][8]

Eleanor was a child prodigy, who had shown an early interest in politics and theater. At the age of sixteen, Eleanor had become her father's secretary and accompanied him around the world to socialist conferences. After her father's death in 1883 Eleanor had the task of taking care of the publication of his unfinished manuscripts and the English language version of his main work, Capital.^[9]

In 1884, Eleanor joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) led by Henry Hyndman. During her work in the SDF, she met Edward Aveling, with whom she would spend the rest of her life.^[9]

Later in 1884, Aveling and Eleanor were both elected to the Executive Council of the Social Democratic Federation. This position proved temporary when at the end of the year, the couple, along with William Morris and Belfort Bax, left the SDF in an acrimonious split, to instead form the Socialist League.^[1]

In 1884, Friedrich Engels enlisted Aveling to help translate the first volume of Karl Marx's book Das Kapital.^[1]

In 1886, Eleanor Marx performed a groundbreaking if critically unsuccessful reading of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in London, with herself as Nora Helmer, Aveling as Torvald Helmer, and George Bernard Shaw as Krogstad.^[9]

Under the pen name Alec Nelson, Aveling also achieved some small success as a playwright. Aveling wrote several successful plays, including an adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, which premiered in London in May 1888. By August, he was supervising the production of three different plays in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere.^[1]

In August 1888, the socialist branch to which Aveling and Eleanor Marx belonged separated from the anarchist-dominated Socialist League in favour of an independent existence as the Bloomsbury Socialist Society. After leaving the Socialist League, Aveling became active in the Gasworkers' Union, for whom he served as an auditor.^[1]

Aveling was a founding member and was elected to the Executive Committee of the Independent Labour Party by the 1893 Conference, which established the organisation. He left that group to rejoin the Marxist Social Democratic Federation in 1896, despite his long-standing personal and political quarrel with SDF leader Henry Hyndman.^[1]

On 8 June 1897, while temporarily separated from Eleanor, Edward secretly married an actress, Eva Frye, using his pen-name "Alec Nelson". But he soon returned to Eleanor, when he was struck down with kidney disease. After nursing him for some time, Eleanor Marx at age 43 committed suicide on 31 March 1898, distraught over his infidelity and her belief about his impending death.^[1][10]

A subsequent coroner's inquest delivered a verdict of "suicide while in a state of temporary insanity," clearing Aveling of criminal wrongdoing, but he was widely reviled throughout the socialist community as having caused Eleanor to take her life.^[9]

Aveling died four months later, on 2 August 1898, in Battersea of his kidney disease, at age 48. His body was cremated at Woking Crematorium, Surrey, three days later.^[1][11][12]

Despite his prominence as a member of the fledgling British Marxist movement, no representatives of the Socialist or Labour movements were present at the funeral due to the widely held belief that he was responsible for Eleanor Marx's suicide.^[1]

Although he had numerous relationships with women, as far as is known, Aveling had no children.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14} English Wikipedia article on Edward Aveling
2. ↑ GRO Reference: 1849 D Quarter in OF THE HACKNEY UNION Volume 03 Page 214. General Register Office online index.
3. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGBJ-2X1 : 12 September 2019), Edward B Aveling in household of Thomas Aveling, Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England; citing Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England, p. 8, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
4. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRNL-B6B : 19 February 2021), Edwin B Aveling in entry for Thomas Aveling, 1871.
5. ↑ "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DLV-NVJ : 13 December 2014), Edward Bibbins Aveling, 1872; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1872, quarter 3, vol. 1B, p. 619, Islington, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
6. ↑ English Wikipedia article on Jenny von Westphalen
7. ↑ German Wikipedia article on Philipp von Westphalen
8. ↑ von Westphalen, Christian Heinrich Philipp Edler von. Geschichte der Feldzüge des Herzogs Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Volume 1. Berlin: Verlag der königlichen geheimen Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei (R. Decker), 1859, p. XV-XVIII
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3} English Wikipedia article on Eleanor Marx
10. ↑ AVELING Eleanor Marx of "the Den" Jew's-walk Sydenham Kent, spinster, died 31 March 1898, Probate London 16 April to Edward Aveling, gentleman, Effects £1909 3s. 10d. Probate Registry online search
11. ↑ GRO Reference: 1898 S Quarter in WANDSWORTH Volume 01D Page 351. General Register Office online index.
12. ↑ Aveling Edward otherwise NELSON Alec of 2 Stafford-mansions Albert-bridge Surrey, author, died 2 August 1898, Probate London 17 August to Arthur Wilson Crosse, gentleman, Effects £852 7s. 3d. Probate Registry online search

See also:

• German Wikipedia article on Edward Aveling

• Voter registration: London electoral register 1898, Borough of Lewisham, Upper Sydenham Polling District. Number: 10665; Name: Aveling, Dr. Edward; Abode: 7 Jew's Walk, Sydenham; House; Qualifying property: 7 Jew's Walk."England, London Electoral Registers, 1847-1913", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJFB-YKZB : 26 September 2020), Edward Aveling, 1898.

• https://geneee.org/edward/aveling?lang=de

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