Mathilde Blind
Mathilde Blind was a notable poet and political thinker born on March 21, 1841, whose life was deeply influenced by her family's radical political activism. After experiencing multiple expulsions across Europe due to their views, Blind's family settled in England, where she engaged with prominent political figures like Karl Marx. Her early education included studying at the University of Zurich, which helped shape her understanding of gender oppression and fueled her independent spirit. Blind published her first poetry collection, "Poems," in 1867 under the pseudonym Claude Lake, blending her poetic expression with political themes reminiscent of significant English poets.
Throughout her career, she admired and drew inspiration from leading women writers of her time, culminating in a biography of George Eliot published in 1883. Blind's work from the 1870s and 1880s reflected her strong feminist perspective and religious skepticism, with notable pieces including translations and essays. Her long poem, "The Heather on Fire," published in 1886, exemplified her commitment to using poetry as a vehicle for political change. Blind passed away on November 26, 1896, leaving behind a legacy that challenged Victorian norms and positioned her as a vital figure among Victorian women writers.
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Mathilde Blind
Writer
- Born: March 21, 1841
- Birthplace: Mannheim, Germany
- Died: November 26, 1896
Biography
Mathilde Blind was born on March 21, 1841, the daughter of radical political activist Friederike Ettlinger. Her father was many years older than her mother and died soon after she was born. Her mother married radical writer Karl Blind in 1849. The family faced repeated expulsions from a series of European countries because of its political views, moving from Germany to France and Belgium before finally settling in England. Blind’s family continued to be active in European political affairs, and it was in this hotbed of radical intellectualism that Blind spent her youth.
After a brief enrollment at The Ladies’ Institute in England, Blind traveled to her uncle’s house in Zurich where she studied languages at the University of Zurich. She returned to London in 1859, where she read voraciously and had close contact with some of the leading European political thinkers of the day, including Karl Marx and Giuseppe Mazzini. During this period, Blind’s self-education led to her growing independence and gave her a fuller understanding of gender oppression.
She used the pseudonym Claude Lake to publish her first volume of poetry, Poems, in 1867. Like the English poets with whom she most identified (including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and George Gordon, Lord Byron), Blind combined political radicalism, a rejection of social convention, and a connection to nature in her work. At the same time, she began to admire and identify with the leading women writers of the day—George Eliot, George Sand, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Indeed, her admiration for Eliot led her to write a biography of her fellow writer published in 1883.
Her work in the 1870’s and 1880’s, including translations of David Friedrich Strauss’s The Old Faith and the New: A Confession (1874), an important essay on Mary Wollstonecraft (1878), and a book of poetry, The Prophecy of Saint Oran, and Other Poems (1881), demonstrated both her strong feminism and her religious skepticism. During the 1870’s she also established ties to New Raphaelite painter Ford Madox Brown, a relationship ended only by his death in 1891.
In 1886, she published a long poem The Heather on Fire: A Tale of the Highland Clearances. This was an essentially political work and indicates Blind’s ongoing dedication to the power of poetry to effect political change. Blind died on November 26, 1896.
At a time when women were expected to be passive helpmates to their husbands, Blind’s life and poetry stand out as clear statements of free thinking, a rejection of Victorian morality, and a commitment to feminist ideals. In addition, her work establishes her as an important member of an elite group of Victorian women writers.