Edward Carpenter was born in Brighton in 1844. His paternal grandfather was an admiral during the wars with revolutionary France, and his father, Charles, served as a naval lieutenant before retiring to practice law, in 1833 marrying Sophia Wilson, the daughter of another officer. The family settled in a genteel part of Brighton. Carpenter studied at Brighton College, as did his three elder brothers, who took posts in colonial administration, the navy and the army respectively. As the youngest brother, the seventh of ten children, Carpenter spent much time in the company of his sisters. He grew to resent the confinements of bourgeois convention, and the gulf between his own class and the poor.
His father’s literary tastes were a key influence: counting Coleridge among his acquaintances,
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Citation: Mead, Henry. "Edward Carpenter". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 May 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=749, accessed 25 April 2024.]
