Edward Carpenter Quotes

Edward Carpenter was born in Hove, Sussex, England. He was an English poet, philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. He had long been influenced by the work of Walt Whitman, whose verse forms he followed in his long, unrhymed poem Towards Democracy. He was a prominent advocate of vegetarianism, overt homosexuality, anti-industrialism, women’s rights, clean air, and the value of manual labour. He was very famous as a freethinking author and campaigner, and as the writer of the socialist song England Arise.