Charles Sotheran

Charles Sotheran (born July 8, 1847 in Stoke Newington, London Borough of Hackney , England , † June 27, 1902 in New York , USA ) was an English / American journalist , politician , Freemason and theosophist .

Life

Sotheran grew up in England, was educated in private schools and began an apprenticeship as a bookseller with his uncle Henry Sotheran in 1862 . This was the owner of the respected, and still today (2008) existing, Henry Sotheran Ltd. Here he gained a good reputation as a bibliographer and antiquarian . In the course of this activity he came into contact with Freemasonry , joined an, albeit irregular, lodge according to the Memphis Misraïm rite and later also a lodge according to the Swedenborg rite . He had at least a close relationship with the Rosicrucians .

In 1869 Sotheran married Mary Eva MacManus of Fermanagh in Manchester , after whose death he entered into a second relationship with Alice Hyneman-Rhine in the USA . It is unclear whether children emerged from the marriages.

In 1874 he moved to the USA, settled in New York and began working as a journalist. He wrote regularly for numerous newspapers and magazines, such as New York World , New York Sun , New York Graphic , New York Recorder , New York Star , Dramatic World , Advocate and Sunnyside Press, and in 1878 he became co-editor and co-owner of New York Echo . He also acted as a bibliographer for some libraries and wrote several books. He was a member of the New York Press Club .

He had already been politically active in England and was involved in the Chartist movement, and since his arrival in the USA Sotheran had been involved in American politics as a socialist . He was a co-founder and member of the Socialist Labor Party of America in 1876/77 . When it developed into a communist party from 1890 under the leadership of Daniel De Leon , Sotheran became increasingly offensive with his liberal-moderate attitude and was finally expelled from the party around 1895. In the following years he tried to found his own, less authoritarian socialist party before he could realize his project, but he died in 1902.

He was a co-founder and member of the Theosophical Society (TG). On September 7, 1875, Sotheran was present at a lecture by George Henry Felt in Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's apartment in New York. During the following discussion the idea of founding the TG came up for the first time . The next day, September 8th, he was co-signer of the founding document for the TG and on September 13th (18th?) He had the idea at another related meeting to set up the newly founded organization The Theosophical Society (= Theosophical Society ( TG)). The thought came to him while leafing through a dictionary, when he came across the term "theosophy". This name was unanimously adopted in the following vote, because it was found to be in accordance with the then goal of the TG , the scientific research of occultism . At a meeting on October 30th, Sotheran was elected TG's librarian . On January 5, 1876, however, he resigned from the TG after Blavatsky had expressed himself in a newspaper article against socialism and communism. Calculated from the official founding day of the TG, November 17, 1875, Sotheran had only been a member for 50 days.

Works

• Alessandro di Cagliostro , Impostor or Martyr . DM Bennett, New York 1876
• Genealogical Memoranda relating to the Family of Sotheran and to the Sept of Mae Manus . London 1871
• Horace Greeley and other pioneers of American socialism . Haskell House Publishers, New York 1971, ISBN 0838311326
• Manchester Diocesan Church Calendar . Manchester, 1873
• Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer . CP Somerby, New York 1876

Web links

• Short biography and picture (English)
• Biographical article at The New York Times (English, PDF, 20 kB)
• Sotherans exit from the TG (English)
• Sotheran as a member of the Freemasons (Swedenborg Rite) (English)
• Homepage of Henry Sotheran Ltd. where he received his education (English)