Posted by Duncan on August 01, 2002 at 17:36:48 from 205.188.209.46 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Re: Arthur Ransome - A Spy, again posted by andy bolger on July 31, 2002 at 22:52:40:
Not a lot. He said that he was an admirer of William Morris. Put that in its historical context and that certainly suggests some socialist leanings if not necessarily anything organised or formalised. He had a copy of 'News From Nowhere' on his bookshelf. This is rather more suggestive - one of Morris' more unequivocally socialist works. He subscribed to the Clarion for 'a short time'. Although historically the Clarion seems a fairly safe, non-scary publication, before the war subscribers to the paper would have been seen as people on the far left fringes of British politics. None of this would seem all that relevant without the evidence of his later political writings, (that fact that he came from a political family - a family of Liberals who would have disapproved of any socialist connections is suggestive too).
The Bohemia in London he wrote about was also a political society and he felt at home in it. These would often be Fabians (which did not necessarily imply the centrist politics that the name suggests now) - along with Theosophists and proto-fascists and all manner of odd-balls; but certainly some of his close associates were on the left.
Some leftwing friendships are obvious after the Russian episode too - such as his closeness to Molly Hamilton. And then there's the story about his views on China, presented in the last Mixed Moss...
Duncan