Havelock Ellis, the British physician and writer, was born February 2, 1859, in Croydon, Surrey, England; he died July 8, 1939, at Hintlesham, Suffolk, Britain.
EditLife and Career
Henry Havelock Ellis was not himself gay, but his seven-volume
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, (1897-1928), was of great importance in changing the general western attitude towards sex.
He was the only son of Edward Peppen Ellis and his wife Susannah Mary. Both his father and his maternal grandfather were sea captains. In fact all his near male relatives lived near or on the sea. He was named after Sir Henry Havelock, the general of the Indian Mutiny, who was his maternal grandmother’s first cousin. Havelock Ellis’s father voyaged in his sailing ship annually around the world via Australia, taking nine months. At the age of seven Havelock Ellis made the voyage with him. He was otherwise brought up in the Surrey suburbs of London and educated at private schools in Merton and Mitcham.
When 16 a health scare led him to going on another sea voyage with his father. When they reached Australia Havelock Ellis settled there as a school teacher and stayed for four years. He taught at Sparkes Creek in the New South Wales bush. During these times he developed his views on the search for scientific truth, with the writings of James Hinton providing inspiration. Havelock Ellis decided that his life’s main task would be the study of sex.
He returned to England in 1879 and eventually became a medical student at St. Thomas’s Hospital. This was paid for with a loan of £200 from a friend of James Hinton’s and £100 provided by his mother from a legacy. He studied for eight years (1881-1889) but failed to secure the joint qualifications of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. He became a doctor with the licence of the Society of Apothecaries. During the years he was also becoming familiar with the English socialists John Burns, Henry Hyde Champion, R. B. P. Frost, H. M. Hyndeman, Ernest Belfort Bax, Bernard Shaw, Thomas Davidson, and John Morrison Davidson. Havelock Ellis also became involved with the publication of plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, printed in the
Mermaid series. He was also involved with publication of scientific work in the
Contemporary Science series.
At the age of 32 he married Edith Lees, a lesbian. After the first year of their marriage all sexual relations ceased and both went on to a series of affairs with women. He collaborated with
John Addington Symonds on a book on sexual inversion. Ellis recognised two conditions: “ complete inversion” (=exclusive homosexuality) and “ psychosexual hermaphroditism” (=bisexuality). In the middle of writing Symonds suddenly died and the book first appeared in German under the title
Das konträre Geschlechtsgefühl, (
Contrary Sexual Feeling), (1896) with both names on the title page. In the atmosphere after the disgrace of
Oscar Wilde (May, 1895), publication in Britain was problematic and did not occur until November, 1897, under the title
Sexual Inversion.
A radical publisher and bookseller, George Bedborough was prosecuted for dealing with the book, and this caused much anxiety although Bedborough was not eventually imprisoned.
Sexual Inversion was the first book in English to treat homosexuality as neither a disease nor crime, and maintained that it was inborn and unmodifiable - a view that he never renounced. The third edition of
Sexual Inversion in 1915 was supplemented by material from
Magnus Hirschfeld’s Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes, published in 1914. Havelock was listed at number 281 in the top 500 lesbian and gay heroes in
The Pink Paper, October 17, 1997, issue 503, page 17. A black and white photograph of Havelock Ellis just before his 73rd birthday in 1932 is reproduced in
Neil Miller, (1995), page 17. A drawing of Havelock Ellis by W. Rothenstein (1931) is in the National Portrait Gallery.
EditWork
Havelock Ellis, editor, with a general introduction on the English drama during the reigns of Elizabeth and
James I by
John Addington Symonds, (1887), “
Christopher Marlowe“ , London: Vizetelly, 431 pages.
Havelock Ellis, and John Addington Symonds, editors, (1947) “ Christopher Marlowe“ , contains “ Tamburlaine the Great” , “ The Tragical history of Dr Faustus” , “ The Jew of Malta” , and “ Edward the Second” , London: Ernest Benn, 430 pages. Havelock Ellis, (1904), “ Man and Woman: A Study of Human Secondary Sexual Characters” , London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., fourth edition, 488 pages. Provides a detailed description and comparison of men and women based on published data on physical dimensions, senses, intellect, metabolism, psychology, and creativity.
EditBibliography
R. C. K. Ensor, (1949), pages 258-260 in “ The Dictionary of National Biography 1931-1940” , edited by L. G. Wickham Legg, London: Oxford University Press, 968 pages, (hardback). Phyllis Grosskurth, (1980), “ Havelock Ellis: A Biography” , New York: Alfred A. Knopf.