This listing is for a mega rare and incredibly well-preserved 150 year old genuine autograph of famed 19th Century British Clergyman and cultural icon Reverend Charles Kingsley (1819-1875). The autograph in black fountain pen ink is on a small 1.75 x 3" sized calling card. The card is autographed simply with Kingsley's name.
Kingsley was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men's college, and forming labor cooperatives, which failed, but encouraged later working reforms.
Kingsley was also a prolific novelist whose works include the classics 'Hypatia' (1853), 'Westward Ho!' (1855), and 'The Water Babies' (1863).
He died of pneumonia on 23 January 1875 at Eversley, Hampshire, aged 55. He was buried there in St. Mary's Churchyard.
The condition of the signed calling card is remarkable and the only issue is the glue area on the reverse where the card was affixed in an album and then removed. The autographed card is not mounted. The listing photo is a stock image and not included.
A MUST for Charles Kingsley fans, European and American historians, and rare 19th Century celebrity autograph collectors.
Winning bidder will receive this never-seen original signature safely packed and shipped by USPS. U.S. bidders only, please. International bidders please contact me first to arrange shipping cost for overseas.
I will be listing more rare autographs from my personal collection. All questions welcome and answered. Thanks for looking!
More about Charles Kingsley:
Kingsley was born in Holne, Devon, the elder son of the Reverend Charles Kingsley and his wife, Mary Lucas Kingsley. His brother Henry Kingsley (1830–1876) and sister Charlotte Chanter (1828–1882) also became writers. He was the father of the novelist Lucas Malet (Mary St. Leger Kingsley, 1852–1931) and the uncle of the traveller and scientist Mary Kingsley (1862–1900).
Charles Kingsley's childhood was spent in Clovelly, Devon, where his father was curate in 1826–1832 and rector in 1832–1836, and at Barnack, Northamptonshire. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Helston Grammar School before studying at King's College London and the University of Cambridge. Charles entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1838, and graduated first class in classics, and senior optime in 1842. He chose to pursue priesthood in the Anglican Church. In 1844, he became Rector of Eversley in Hampshire. In 1859, he was appointed chaplain to Queen Victoria. In 1860, he became Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, and, in 1861, a private tutor to the Prince of Wales.
In 1869, Kingsley resigned his Cambridge professorship and served from 1870 to 1873 as a canon of Chester Cathedral. While there, he founded the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art, which was prominent in the establishment of the Grosvenor Museum. In 1872, he agreed to become the 19th president of the Birmingham and Midland Institute. In 1873, he was made a canon of Westminster Abbey.
Kingsley sat on the 1866 Edward Eyre Defence Committee along with Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Charles Dickens, John Tyndall, and Alfred Tennyson, where he supported Jamaican Governor Edward Eyre's brutal suppression of the Morant Bay Rebellion against the Jamaica Committee. Kingsley was a friend and colleague of Charles Darwin.
One of his daughters, Mary St Leger Kingsley, became known as a novelist under the pseudonym Lucas Malet. Kingsley's biography, written by his widow in 1877, was entitled, Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of his Life.
Kingsley received letters from Thomas Huxley in 1860, and sent letters in 1863 discussing Huxley's early ideas on agnosticism.