Charles Kegan Paul

Charles Kegan Paul (8 March 1828 – 19 July 1902) was an English clergyman, publisher and author. He began his adult life as a clergyman of the Church of England, and served the Church for more than 20 years. His religious orientation moved from the orthodoxy of the Church of England to first Agnosticism, then Positivism, and finally Roman Catholicism.

Early life

Paul was born on 8 March 1828 at Whitelackington, Somerset, the eldest of ten children of the Rev. Charles Paul (18021861) and Frances Kegan Horne (18021848) of Bath, Somerset. He was educated at Eton College where he entered Dr Hawtrey's house in 1841, at 13 years of age. Paul matriculated on 29 January 1846 at age 17 and entered Exeter College, Oxford. He received his B.A. degree three years later, in 1849.

Life in Holy Orders

Paul was ordained deacon in Lent of 1851, and served as curate at Great Tew, in the Oxford Dioceses for 18511852. He was ordained a priest in 1852, and served as curate of Bloxham, near Banbury, Oxfordshire for six months. After serving for a while as a tutor to pupils travelling in Germany, Paul was appointed to chaplain's post in Eton. He served as a chaplain and an assistant master for 18531862. He also served as the Master in College, the housemaster of College, the oldest boarding house at Eton, which holds seventy King's Scholars.

He had not been a King's Scholar himself because although a nomination could be obtained without difficulty, College was at it lowest ebb, in comfort, morals, and number. Paul's aunt made a visit to Eton to check out the school before he was sent and reported that the ''worst ward in the worst hospital'' was preferable to Long Chamber, the dormitory for College. Given the condition of hospitals at the time this was a terrible indictment, and Paul was initially placed instead in Goodford's house.Paul notes in his autobiography. ''Memories'' (p. 62) that the decision not to place him in College was in some ways unfortunate, as the house was reformed in the year that he started at Eton.

He left teaching in Eton in 1862 and was appointed vicar to Sturminster Marshall, Dorset, a living in the gift of Eton. It was not a large living, being worth less than £300 a year. He served there for twelve years. He associated with Joseph Arch's movement on behalf of agricultural labourers in Dorset. Finding himself more and more out of sympathy with the teachings of the Church of England he abandoned his living and went to London. While he was at Sturminster Marshall he completed the requirements for his M.A. degree, and was awarded the degree in 1868.

Publishing

In 1877 he purchased the publishing department of the firm Henry S. King & Co. which had previously published some of his work, and for whom he had been acting as a reader. Paul renamed the firm C. Kegan Paul & Co. Following his writings on William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, he was of material assistance in helping Elizabeth Robins Pennell write the first full-length biography of the latter.

After a fire in 1883 and other problems, the firm was amalgamated with two other publisher, George Redway, who became a partner, and the heirs of Nicholas Trübner. The new firm, now a Limited Company titled Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd, moved into larger premises in 1891. The firm did well until 1895, when the profits fell suddenly. Redway and Paul lost the confidence of the shareholders and were effectively forced out. Paul retired, having been badly injured in an accident some months earlier. While the board accepted Paul's resignation, he remained on good terms with the firm, and they published two more of his translations, as well as his ''Memories'' and his volume of verse. The firm was eventually merged with George Routledge in 1912.

Works

Paul wrote that although he had been a ''pretty frequent writer in periodicals and of pamphlets and prefaces'', these could be ignored in his bibliography as he had ''collected in books all that are worth preserving''.

As an author he thought nine of his works as worthy of preserving:
# ''A Translation of Faust'' (1873). In ''Memories'' Paul acknowledges the help provided by one of his pupils, Richard Brandt, in revising the text and preserving him from the foolish blunders made by other translators.
# ''Life of William Godwin'' (1876) Paul reports that the book had a considerable success and that he had often thought of issuing a condensed volume, but that his own views had changed so much that a lot of changes and explanations would be needed in the revision.
# ''Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft'' (1879)
# ''Biographical Sketches''
''Biographical Sketches''
(1883) The sketches are of: Edward Irving, John Keble, Maria Harethe wife of Augustus William Hare, Rowland Williams, Charles Kingsley, George Eliot, and John Henry Newman
# ''The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal: Translated from the text of M. Auguste Molinier'' (1885)
# '' Maria Drummond'' (1891) Mrs. Drummond was a friend of Paul's and he wrote the short memoir at the request of her surviving daughters, who gave him a free hand to do so.
# ''Faith and Unfaith'' (1891), a collection of seven essays. Paul describes this as ''a collection of scattered essays such as seemed to me worth preserving and by which I should wish to be remembered . . . ''
# ''En Route'' (1896) translated by Paul from the French novel written by Joris-Karl Huysmans. The book is the middle novel in a trilogy which are a thinly disguised account of Huysmans' own conversion to Roman Catholicism, and therefore of interest to Paul. Ill health prevented Paul from translating the final volume in the trilogy.
# ''By the Way Side: Verses and Translations''. (1899) This was a small volume (vii, 103 p. 8º), wotj a collection of verses. Howsham states that the publication of this volume and ''Memories'' by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. in 1899, show that Paul was still on good terms with his former firm.

Paul's final book was his autobiography, ''Memories'' (1899).

Family and later life

He married Margaret Agnes Colville, daughter of Andrew Colville (1779–1856), businessman and administrator. Her siblings included James William Colvile, a judge in colonial India; Eden Colvile, Governor of Rupert's Land and the Hudson's Bay Company; Isabella Colville, mother of football pioneer Francis Marindin

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