In 1983 Gerry Kennedy set off on a tour through Russia, China, Japan and the USA to visit others involved in the global anti-war movement. Only dimly aware of his Victorian ancestors: George Boole, forefather of the digital revolution and James Hinton, eccentric philosopher and advocate of polygamy, he had directly followed in the footsteps of two dynasties of radical thinkers and doers.Their notable achievements, in which the women were particularly prominent, involved many spheres. Boole's wife, Mary Everest, niece of George Everest, surveyor of the eponymous mountain, was an early advocate of hands-on education. Of the five talented Boole daughters, Ethel Voynich, wife of the discoverer of the enigmatic, still unexplained Voynich Manuscript, campaigned with Russian anarchists to overthrow the Tsar. Her 1897 novel The Gadfly, filmed later with music by Shostakovich, sold in millions behind the Iron Curtain. She was rumoured to have had an affair with the notorious 'Ace of Spies', Sidney Reilly. One of Ethel's sisters married Charles Howard Hinton: a leading exponent of the esoteric realm of the fourth dimension and inventor of the gunpowder baseball-pitcher.Of their descendants, Carmelita Hinton also pioneered progressive education in the USA at her school in Putney, Vermont.
Her children dedicated their lives to Mao's China. Appalled by the dropping on Japan of the atomic bomb that she had helped design, Joan Hinton defected to China and actively engaged in the Cultural Revolution. William Hinton wrote the influential documentary Fanshen based on his experience in 1948 of revolutionary change in a Shanxi village. Other members of the clan became renowned in their fields of physics, entomology and botany. Their combined legacy of independent and constructive thinking is perhaps typified by the invention of the Jungle Gym: the climbing-frame now used by children the world over. In The Booles and the Hintons the author embarks on a quest to reveal the stories behind their remarkable lives.
In 1983 Gerry Kennedy set off on a tour through Russia, China, Japan and the USA to visit others involved in the global anti-war movement. Only dimly aware of his Victorian ancestors: George Boole, forefather of the digital revolution and James Hinton, eccentric philosopher and advocate of polygamy, he had directly followed in the footsteps of two dynasties of radical thinkers and doers.Their notable achievements, in which the women were particularly prominent, involved many spheres. Boole's wife, Mary Everest, niece of George Everest, surveyor of the eponymous mountain, was an early advocate of hands-on education. Of the five talented Boole daughters, Ethel Voynich, wife of the discoverer of the enigmatic, still unexplained Voynich Manuscript, campaigned with Russian anarchists to overthrow the Tsar. Her 1897 novel The Gadfly, filmed later with music by Shostakovich, sold in millions behind the Iron Curtain. She was rumoured to have had an affair with the notorious 'Ace of Spies', Sidney Reilly. One of Ethel's sisters married Charles Howard Hinton: a leading exponent of the esoteric realm of the fourth dimension and inventor of the gunpowder baseball-pitcher.Of their descendants, Carmelita Hinton also pioneered progressive education in the USA at her school in Putney, Vermont.
Her children dedicated their lives to Mao's China. Appalled by the dropping on Japan of the atomic bomb that she had helped design, Joan Hinton defected to China and actively engaged in the Cultural Revolution. William Hinton wrote the influential documentary Fanshen based on his experience in 1948 of revolutionary change in a Shanxi village. Other members of the clan became renowned in their fields of physics, entomology and botany. Their combined legacy of independent and constructive thinking is perhaps typified by the invention of the Jungle Gym: the climbing-frame now used by children the world over. In The Booles and the Hintons the author embarks on a quest to reveal the stories behind their remarkable lives.
ContentsAcknowledgements viiiForeword ixWho's Who xii 1 GRAVY OVER A TABLECLOTH 1The author's own background in West London. 'Discovery' of the Booles, brief outline of the Boole/Hinton major characters.2 THE UGLY DUCKLING 12The Voynich Manuscript in brief: its history and research to date.3 BRINGING STARRY WISDOM DOWN 29The author's visit to Lincoln. George Boole's life and background.4 THE MISSUS 59Mary Everest Boole: her life with George Boole and her own views on life and education.5 TADPOLES INTO FROGS 83The five Boole daughters' early lives.6 THE WIZARD 89James Hinton: his life and philosophy.7 TRAPDOORS AND VELVETEEN 104Tsarist Russia in the late nineteenth century. Russian anarchists: Kropotkin and Stepniak. Charlotte Wilson and Wyldes Farm.Radical politics in England in the 1880s.8 CITIZENS' DIPLOMACY 119The author's peace politics, Moscow dissidents and journey on the Trans-Siberian railway, 1983. Ethel Boole's stay in St Petersburg, 1887-89.9 ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN 141James Hinton's comeuppance. Olive Schreiner and Havelock Ellis. Caroline Haddon. The Men and Women's Club.10 THE RIFF-RAFF OF RASCALDOM 153The Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. Russian anarchists and related novels of the period. London arrival of Wilfrid Voynich.11 COMMUNING WITH SPACE 170Charles Howard Hinton and the fourth dimension. His and Mary Ellen Boole's exile to Japan and the USA in 1887. Hinton'swritings and influence in Europe. Peter Ouspensky in Russia.12 THE CITADEL 197The author's visit to Warsaw. Proletariat: early Polish socialists. History of Wilfrid's escape from Siberia.13 DEAD AS MUTTON? 213Ethel Voynich's novel The Gadfly. Wilfrid Voynich establishes his book trade. Jack Raymond, another novel by Ethel.14 THE ENGLISH AUNTS 227The five Boole sisters: Mary Ellen, Margaret, Alice, Lucy and Ethel's later lives. Ethel and Ivor Gurney.15 BRINGING HOME THE BACON 247The Voynich Manuscript again. Ethel and Wilfrid in the USA.16 THE BIGGLES OF COMMUNISM 259Ethel in New York; her last novel. Ethel 're-discovered'. Scandal with the spy, Sidney Reilly.17 OLIVE AND OVOD 277The author's return to Russia via Lithuania searching for The Gadfly in Moscow and St Petersburg.18 A CQR LIFE 302The life of Cambridge scientist, Sir Geoffrey Taylor, grandson of George Boole.19 THE HINTON GENUS 314Hinton descendants in Mexico in the mining industry and their plant collecting. The life of Howard Everest Hinton, entomologist.20 UNCOLLAPSIBLE HINTONS 337The Byrdcliffe arts community, Woodstock USA. Carmelita Hinton and the setting up of Putney School, Vermont USA.21 THE GADGET 356The Manhattan Project and Joan Hinton. Hiroshima.22 PEKING JOAN 374Joan Hinton and Sid Engst in Mongolia, Si'an and Beijing during the Cultural Revolution.23 FANSHEN 398The life of Bill Hinton and the rural revolution in China. Author's visit to Long Bow village.24 THE VERMONTER 417The author returns to the USA to visit Putney School.Afterword 422Notes 427Illustration Credits 453Index 456
Gerry Kennedy is a freelance writer and broadcaster, has contributed many short pieces and longer documentaries for BBC Radio 4 mostly via Loftus Productions. An occasional feature- contributor to newspapers, he was co-author of The Voynich Manuscript, Orion Press, 2004 and consultant on a BBC4 tv programme about the manuscript. He lives in London.
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