Henry Spencer Ashbee (21 April 1834 – 29 July 1900)(Walter) was a

book collector Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector. The love of books is ''bibliophilia'', and someo ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...

, and

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

. He is notable for his massive, clandestine three-volume bibliography of erotic literature published under the pseudonym of Pisanus Fraxi.

Life

Ashbee was born in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the son of Robert and Frances Ashbee (born Spencer). He became the senior partner in the London branch of the firm of Charles Lavy & Co. He travelled extensively during his life, including

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, collaborating with the architect Alexander Graham on ''Travels in Tunisia'', published in 1887. Ashbee married Elisabeth Lavy in 1862. Elizabeth (1841–1919) was the daughter of Edward Otto Charles Lavy, who founded the Hamburg firm in 1838. Elizabeth's brother Charles Lavy (1842-1928) inherited the firm and became a politician in Germany. The Ashbee's had one son, Charles (the designer Charles Robert Ashbee, born 1863), and three daughters.A. James Hammerton, "Cruelty and companionship: conflict in nineteenth-century married life", Routledge, 1992, , pp.144-145 His family life grew unhappier as he aged. As he became more conservative, his family followed the progressive movement of the era. "The 'excessive education' of his daughters irritated him, his Jewish wife's pro-suffragism infuriated him, and he became estranged from his socialist homosexual son, Charles". Henry and Elisabeth separated in 1893. Henry Spencer Ashbee is buried in

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick ...

Book collection

Ashbee was an avid

, with perhaps the world's most extensive collections of

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best kno ...

and erotica. Influenced by a friendship with the Belgian diplomat

Joseph Octave Delepierre Joseph Octave Delepierre (12 March 1802 – 18 August 1879) was a Belgian lawyer, archivist, diplomat, author and antiquary. He spent his later life in the United Kingdom, and is best known for his studies of macaronic language and literature. ...

, his erotica collecting proceeded with purchases in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. Ashbee was a part of a loose intellectual fraternity of English gentlemen who discussed sexual matters with an openness that was at odds with

Victorian mores Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of the middle class in 19th-century Britain, the Victorian era. Victorian values emerged in all classes and reached all facets of Victorian living. The values of the period—which can be ...

; this fraternity included

Richard Francis Burton Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...

Richard Monckton Milnes Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, FRS (19 June 1809 – 11 August 1885) was an English poet, patron of literature and a politician who strongly supported social justice. Background and education Milnes was born in London, the son o ...

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

and others. He also amassed thousands of volumes of pornography in several languages. He wrote on sex under the pseudonyms "Fraxinus" (Ash) and "Apis" (Bee) and sometimes combined them as "Pisanus Fraxi". Ashbee's will left his entire book collection to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, with the condition that the erotic works had to be accepted along with the more conventional items. Because the trustees of the Museum wanted the materials related to Cervantes, they decided to accept the entire bequest but not without some reluctance. The trustees were allowed to destroy any of the books if they already had a duplicate, but in practice went much further and destroyed six boxes "of offensive matter which is of no value or interest whatsoever" including cheaply produced Victorian erotica. The remainder of the erotic works formed the core of the

Private Case The Private Case is a collection of erotica and pornography held initially by the British Museum and then, from 1973, by the British Library. The collection began between 1836 and 1870 and grew from the receipt of books from legal deposit, from ...

which were kept hidden from readers in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

for many years; they include a work by

William Simpson Potter William Simpson Potter (21 January 1805 – 16 January 1879) was a 19th-century English author. Potter was a friend of Henry Spencer Ashbee, a merchant, bibliographer, bibliophile, authority on the life and works of Miguel de Cervantes, and collec ...

. (See also

Secretum Secretum may refer to: *Secretum (book), a book by Petrarch *, a book by Monaldi & Sorti * Secretum (room) at the British Museum *A ''sigillum secretum'', a special seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a divers ...

Writing

Ashbee's most famous works were his three bibliographies of erotic works: * ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum: being Notes Bio- Biblio- Icono- graphical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books, by Pisanus Fraxi.'' London, privately printed, 1877. (The name is borrowed from the Catholic Church's list of banned books, ''"

Index Librorum Prohibitorum The ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbid ...

"''). Translation: A Catalog of Books which should be Prohibited. A facsimile edition was printed in 1960 by Charles Skilton Ltd., London, "limited to 395 copies" (p. 543). In at least the facsimile, the title page reads "Index Librorum Prohibitoru" he final "m" is missing (Charles Skilton was the publisher of the

Billy Bunter William George Bunter is a fictional schoolboy created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards. He features in stories set at Greyfriars School, a fictional English public school in Kent, originally published in the boys' weekly ...

series of school stories.) * ''Centuria Librorum Absconditorum: being Notes Bio- Icono- graphical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books.'' London, privately printed, 1879, online. Translation: A Hundred Books that should be Hidden. * ''Catena Librorum Tacendorum: being Notes Bio- Icono- graphical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books.'' London, privately printed, 1885, online. Translation: Further Books which should not be mentioned. The ''Index'' was arranged alphabetically by title, the ''Centuria'' and ''Catena'' by subject. Ashbee includes plot summaries of the works listed, with liberal quotations. Of particular note are the 300 pages of the "Centuria" devoted to anti-Catholic pornography. Initially only 250 copies of each volume were printed. Ashbee is suspected to be "Walter", the author of '' My Secret Life'', a lengthy sexual memoir of a Victorian gentleman.

Legacy

Ashbee was the subject of a 2001 biography by Ian Gibson, ''The Erotomaniac''. A character based on him is central to Sarah Waters's award-winning novel '' Fingersmith'' (2002): a man obsessively collecting and indexing pornography and works about human sexuality, in an atmosphere of oppressive Victorian hypocrisy.Forman, Ross G. Governing Pleasures: Pornography and Social Change in England, 1815-1914 (review), ''Victorian Studies'' 45 (2003) 777-779 Ashbee is #1 in ''

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''s "Top 30 chart of London's rudest writers... the authors we feel have contributed the most to our understanding of the city's complex sexual psychology..."

Notes

References

* Ian Gibson, "The Erotomaniac: The Secret Life of Henry Spencer Ashbee", London: Faber and Faber, 2001, *

Steven Marcus Steven Paul Marcus (December 13, 1928 – April 25, 2018) was an American academic and literary critic who published influential psychoanalytic analyses of the novels of Charles Dickens and Victorian pornography. He was George Delacorte Professo ...

, "

The Other Victorians Steven Paul Marcus (December 13, 1928 – April 25, 2018) was an American academic and literary critic who published influential psychoanalytic analyses of the novels of Charles Dickens and Victorian pornography. He was George Delacorte Professo ...

: a study of sexuality and pornography in mid-nineteenth-Century England", Transaction Publishers, 2008, , chapter 2. * Henry Spencer Ashbee, also known as "Pisanus Fraxi", ''Index of Forbidden Books'' (written 1880s as ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum''), London: Sphere, 1969. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashbee, Henry Spencer 1834 births 1900 deaths 19th-century British historians 19th-century British male writers 19th-century British non-fiction writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers Bibliophiles Book and manuscript collectors British bibliographers British erotica writers British literary critics British male non-fiction writers British pornography British relationships and sexuality writers British travel writers Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Cultural critics Literacy and society theorists Literary theorists Social critics Writers about activism and social change