Talk:Edmund Gosse

Australian connection

Gosse was a cousin to Sir James Hay Gosse, an Australian businessman[1]. He is also distantly related to Alexander Downer. Is this important enough to put in this article?Ozdaren 11:19, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

LGBT?

What makes Gosse LGBT? I don't see any evidence in the text. Andrew Dalby 15:25, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

No one explained, so I've taken out the LGBT category. If anyone wants to put it back, please make sure there's some explanation in the text of the article. Andrew Dalby 12:56, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Done — Preceding unsigned comment added by Frimoussou (talk • contribs) 19:34, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

Ann Thwaite's biog at ODNB categorically denies it, which I imagine is not done lightly. However there are citations that our text claim support it. In either case I see the category is back. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 05:32, 19 January 2024 (UTC).

'Closely tied'?

Gosse was also closely tied to figures such as Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Addington Symonds, and André Gide.

Odd wording. Tied in what way? Business or social connections? Valetude (talk) 17:55, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

He was a friend of, and corresponded with Swinburne, and wrote a biography of him. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 05:36, 19 January 2024 (UTC).

Plymouth Brethren

I think Philip Henry Gosse's affiliation with the Plymouth Brethren is a bit overstated here. According to the ODNB, Gosse joined the Brethren in 1843, but after he had moved to St Marychurch in 1857 he established a completely independent chapel without any connection to the Brethren. This is confirmed by Edmund Gosse himself, who writes in his father's biography, The Naturalist of the Sea-shore, p. 330:

"In middle life he had connected himself with the Plymouth Brethren, principally, no doubt, because of their lack of systematic organization, their repudiation of all traditional authority, their belief that the Bible is the infallible and sufficient guide. But he soon lost confidence in the Plymouth Brethren also, and for the last thirty years of his life he was really unconnected with any Christian body whatever."

Since Edmund Gosse was born in 1849, the "Plymouth Brethren" part of his upbringing ended when he was eight or nine years old. – Schneid9 (talk) 19:27, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

I think you're right. His father's change in attitude apparently began at the time Gosse's mother died. Father and Son (beginning around p. 70 in the 1949 Penguin edition) gives more detail and nuance, and would be worth looking at for a reference and maybe a quote. Andrew Dalby 08:56, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

It's important to be careful with Father and Son as this is reputedly very inaccurate. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 05:38, 19 January 2024 (UTC).