Arthur Joseph Penty (17 March 1875 – 1937) was an English architect and writer on
guild socialism and
distributism. He was first a
Fabian socialist
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
, and follower of Victorian thinkers
William Morris and
John Ruskin. He is generally credited with the formulation of a
Christian socialist form of the medieval
guild, as an alternative basis for economic life.
Penty was the elder of the two architect sons of Walter Green Penty of York, designer of the
York Institute of Art, Science and Literature
York Institute of Art, Science and Literature is a Grade II listed building at 12 Clifford Street, York.
History and architecture
The foundation stone for the building was laid by the Prince of Wales on 18 July 1883 in a ceremony of masonic ...
. While a pupil and assistant with his father, Penty absorbed the spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the progressive movement in Glasgow.
Early life
Arthur Penty was born at 16 Elmwood Street, in the parish of St Lawrence, York, the second son of
Walter Green Penty
Walter Green Penty FRIBA (19 June 1852 – 23 January 1902) was an architect working in York, England.
Family
He was born in Gate Fulford the son of Thomas Penty (1827-1893) and Maria Green (1831-1863). He married Emma Seller (1847-1937) on 2 ...
(1852–1902), architect, and his wife, Emma Seller. After attending
St Peter's School in York he was apprenticed in 1888 to his father.
Architect in York
When, in the 1890s, Penty joined his father's architectural practice, now renamed as Penty & Penty, "a marked improvement in the quality and originality of the firm's work" ensued.
Among surviving buildings by Walter and Arthur Penty are:
*1894: The Bay Horse, a
public house in
Marygate.
*1895-6: Rowntree Wharf on the
River Foss, originally a flour warehouse for Leetham's Mill, which burnt down in 1931, now flats and offices.
*1899: Terry Memorial
almshouse
An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...
s in
Skeldergate
Skeldergate is a street in the city centre of York, in England. The street is now primarily residential, with many of its warehouse buildings having been converted into apartments.
History
During the Roman Eboracum period, the area in which Ske ...
.
*1900–02: Buildings in River Street, Colenso Street and Lower Darnborough Street in the Clementhorpe area south of the
River Ouse.
He attracted national and even international attention, including favourable notice in
Herman Muthesius
Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within German ...
's ''
Das englische Haus
''The English House'' is a book of design and architectural history written by German architect Hermann Muthesius and first published in German as in 1904. Its three volumes provide a record of the revival of English domestic architecture durin ...
'' (1904).
His younger brother, Frederick T. Penty (1879–1943) took over the business after their father died. Arthur's other younger brother, George Victor Penty (1885–1967), emigrated to Australia to pursue a career in the wool industry.
Move to London
Around 1900 Penty had met
A. R. Orage
Alfred Richard Orage (22 January 1873 – 6 November 1934) was a British influential figure in socialist politics and modernist culture, now best known for editing the magazine ''The New Age'' before the First World War. While he was working as a ...
; together with
Holbrook Jackson
George Holbrook Jackson (31 December 1874 – 16 June 1948) was a British journalist, writer and publisher. He was recognised as one of the leading bibliophiles of his time.
Biography
Holbrook Jackson was born in Liverpool, England. He worked ...
they founded the
Leeds Arts Club
The Leeds Arts Club was founded in 1903 by the Leeds primary school teacher Alfred Orage and Holbrook Jackson, a lace merchant and freelance journalist, and was one of the most advanced centres for modernist thinking, radical thought and experi ...
. Penty left his father's office in 1901, and moved to London in 1902 to pursue his interest in the arts and crafts movement. Orage and Jackson followed in 1905 and 1906; Penty in fact led the way, and Orage lodged with him in his first attempts to live by writing.
Influence
For a time, from 1906, Penty's ideas were widely influential. Orage, as editor of ''
The New Age
''The New Age'' was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938), inspired by Fabian socialism, and credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited by Alfred Richard Orage. It published ...
'', was a convert to
guild socialism. After
World War I guild socialism dropped back as a factor in the thinking of the British Labour movement, in general; the idea of
post-industrialism, on which Penty wrote, attributing the term to
A. K. Coomaraswamy, receded in importance in the face of the economic conditions. Several of Penty's books were translated into German in the early 1920s. Penty was an acknowledged influence on the writings of Spain's
Ramiro de Maeztu (1875–1936), who was murdered by Communists in the early days of the Spanish Civil War.
Distributism
The somewhat complex British development of distributism emerged as a conjuncture of ideas of Penty,
Hilaire Belloc and the Chestertons,
Cecil
Cecil may refer to:
People with the name
* Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name)
* Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
Places Canada
*Cecil, Alberta, ...
and
Gilbert Gilbert may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Gilbert (surname), including a list of people
Places Australia
* Gilbert River (Queensland)
* Gilbert River (South ...
. It reflected in part a first split from the Fabian socialists of the whole New Age group, in the form of the Fabian Arts Group of 1907.
Orage was a believer in Guild socialism for a period. After
C. H. Douglas
Major Clifford Hugh "C. H." Douglas, MIMechE, MIEE (20 January 1879 – 29 September 1952), was a British engineer and pioneer of the social credit economic reform movement.
Education and engineering career
C.H. Douglas was born in either Edge ...
met Orage in 1918, and Orage invented the term
Social Credit for the Douglas theories, there was in effect a further split into 'left' (Social Crediters) and 'right' (distributist) thinkers. This is, though, fairly misleading as a classification; it was also to some extent a split between
theosophist and
Catholic camps. Penty associated with the Catholic
Ditchling Community.
Penty went with the distributists. Distributism in the 1920s took its own direction, as Belloc wrote his version of it in the period 1920 to 1925 and connected it with his political theories. The British Labour Party declared against
Social Credit in 1922.
Works
''The Restoration of the Gild System,''Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1906.
*
"The Restoration of the Guild System,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIII, No. 14, 1913.
*
"The Restoration of the Guild System II,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIII, No. 15, 1913.
*
"The Restoration of the Guild System III,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIII, No. 16, 1913.
*
"The Restoration of the Guild System IV,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIII, No. 17, 1913.
*
"The Restoration of the Guild System V,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIII, No. 18, 1913.
*
"The Restoration of the Guild System VI,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIII, No. 19, 1913.
*
"The Restoration of the Guild System VII,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIII, No. 20, 1913.
"The Peril of Large Organisations,"''The New Age'', Vol. X, No. 13, 1912.
"Art as a Factor in Social Reform,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 13, 1914.
"Art and National Guilds,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 16, 1914.
"Art and Revolution,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 20, 1914.
"Guilds and Versatility,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 21, 1914.
"Aestheticism and History,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 22, 1914.
"The Leisure State,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 23, 1914.
"The Upside Down Problem,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 24, 1914.
"Mediaevalism and Modernism,"''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 25, 1914.
"Art and Plutocracy,"''The New Age'', Vol. XV, No. 1, 1914.
"Fabians, Pigeons, and Dogs,"''The New Age'', Vol. XV, No. 2, 1914.
"Liberty and Art,"''The New Age'', Vol. XV, No. 5, 1914.
* Essays on Post-Industrialism (1914) edited with
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...
''Old Worlds for New,''George Allen & Unwin ltd., 1917.
"After the War,"''The New Age'', Vol. XX, No. 11, 1917, pp. 246–248.
"The Function of the State,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXII, No. 9, 1917, pp. 165–166.
"National Guilds v. the Class War,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIII, No. 16, 1918, pp. 250–253.
"Dance of Siva,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIII, No. 17, 1918, pp. 274–275.
"On the Class War Again,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIII, No. 21, 1918, pp. 330–331.
"Syndicalism and the Neo-Marxians,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIII, No. 24, 1918, pp. 376–377.
"The Neo-Marxians and the Materialist Conception of History,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIII, No. 25, 1918, pp. 393–394.
"A Guildsman's Interpretation of History,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIV, No. 1, 1918, pp. 5–7.
"National Guild Theory,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIV, No. 2, 1918, p. 31.
"A Guildsman's Interpretation of History: From Rome to the Guilds,"''The New Age'', Vol. XXIV, No. 3, 1918, pp. 38–41.
''Guilds and the Social Crisis,''G. Allen & Unwin ltd., 1919.
* ''The Guild Alternative''.
''A Guildsman's Interpretation of History,''George Allen & Unwin ltd., 1920
st Pub. 1919; reprinted by IHS Press, 2004
''Guilds, Trade and Agriculture,''George Allen & Unwin ltd., 1921.
''Post Industrialism,''with a Preface by G. K. Chesterton, George Allen & Unwin ltd., 1922.
"The Obstacle of Industrialism."In ''The Return of Christendom'', George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.
* ''Gilden, Gewerbe und Landwirtschaft'' (1922) translated by
Otto Eccius
* ''Towards a Christian Sociology'' (1923),
* ''Agriculture and the unemployed'' (1925) with
William Wright
* ''The Elements of Domestic Design'' (1930)
* ''Means and Ends'' (1932).
* ''Communism and the Alternative'' (1933)
* ''Distributism: A Manifesto'' (1937)
* ''The Gauntlet: A Challenge to the Myth of Progress'' (2002) collection, introduction by
Peter Chojnowski
* Distributist Perspectives: Volume 1 – Essays on the Economics of Justice and Charity (2004) with others
References
* Kiernan, Edward J. ''Arthur J. Penty: his Contribution to Social Thought'', The Catholic University of America Press, 1941.
* Matthews, Frank. "The Ladder of Becoming: A.R.Orage, A.J. Penty and the Origins of Guild Socialism in England," in David E. Martin and David Rubenstein (editors), ''Ideology and Labour Movement,'' 1979.
* Thistlewood, David. "A. J. Penty (1875–1937) and the Legacy of 19th-Century English Domestic Architecture," ''The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'', Vol. 46, No. 4, Dec. 1987.
* Sokolow, Asa Daniel
"The Political Theory of Arthur J. Penty,"''The Yale Literary Magazine'', 1940.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penty, Arthur
1875 births
1937 deaths
English Christian socialists
English political writers
Members of the Fabian Society
People from York
Architects from Yorkshire
Distributism