A History of Solitude. David Vincent

A HISTORY OF SOLITUDE

      DAVID VINCENT

      polity

      Copyright © David Vincent 2020

      The right of David Vincent to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      First published in 2020 by Polity Press

      Polity Press

      65 Bridge Street

      Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

      Polity Press

      101 Station Landing

      Suite 300

      Medford, MA 02155, USA

      All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3660-3

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Vincent, David, 1949- author.

      Title: A history of solitude / David Vincent.

      Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | Includes

      bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A wide-ranging social

      history of why and how people have chosen to be alone”-- Provided by

      publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019043747 (print) | LCCN 2019043748 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509536580 | ISBN 9781509536603 (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Solitude.

      Classification: LCC BJ1499.S65 V56 2020 (print) | LCC BJ1499.S65 (ebook) | DDC 155.9/2--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043747 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043748

      The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

      Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

      For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book, as with any other historical enterprise, is the product of lone endeavour and collective support. I am particularly grateful to Barbara Taylor, both for the funded network she has established on the history of solitude and for sharing her own knowledge and expertise. Her forthcoming study of the subject in the early-modern era will be a necessary complement to this exercise. The ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ seminars have been a useful location for testing the ideas and conclusions of my work. John Naughton has supplied networked support through the projects of the Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. I thank him for his encouragement and hospitality, as well as his unrivalled expertise on the digital revolution and its implications. The visiting fellows at CRASSH have been a source of debate and information. Colleagues at the Open University have read and commented on draft chapters and made available their specialized knowledge, with particular thanks to Amanda Goodrich, Ros Crone, and John Wolffe. I have benefited from discussions with Patrick Joyce, Leslie Howsam, Kathryn Hughes, and Isabel Rivers. Andrew Mackenzie-McHarg and Anne Vila helped me understand Johann Zimmermann and his writings. Claudia Hammond lent me material from her impressive BBC/Welcome Trust collaborations. The progress of this project has been discussed in the generous company of Brenda and James Gourley, and Seija and Graham Tattersall. Charlotte Vincent, as so often over so many years, has been a sustaining critic, arguing through the book’s ideas, supporting its labour and reading every word for accurate expression. At Polity, Pascal Porcheron’s persistent enthusiasm for this project has much to do with its completion. The care given by Justin Dyer to the preparation of this text has been exemplary.

      This book has been researched in the deep quiet of the rare books rooms in the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, and I thank their staff for their patience and efficiency. As the project was commencing one Armistice Day, the public address system in the latter’s Rare Books Room made the oddly unfeasible request of its readers that they observe a silence for the fallen. Even in the depths of a library, solitude has to be managed.

      The book was written in a converted pigsty in my garden. It is twenty steps from my desk to my house, from my own company to that of my wife and the intermittent presence of children, grandchildren and friends. To be able to make that journey from one location to the other, from productive solitude to the most profound sociability, is the privilege of my life.

      A History of Solitude is dedicated to Veronica Weedon née More, to whom I had the good fortune of being related by marriage. After an eventful war-service, which included work at Bletchley Park, she married and had a family, but was early widowed. Her subsequent life throughout nearly six decades, latterly in a mountain village in Majorca, was an exemplary demonstration of how to maintain a balance between her own company and a wide range of family, friends, and outside interests. She was a great reader, and in turn the author of four books, the first published when she was eighty-five. I hope she would have enjoyed this one.

      Shrawardine, autumn 2019