author
Charles Sotheran
1847–1902
A lively figure in late-19th-century New York literary and political circles, he moved from bookselling into journalism, bibliography, and reform movements. He is also remembered for his part in the early Theosophical Society and for writing on writers, socialism, and public life.
1 Audiobook
Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer
by Charles Sotheran
About the author
Born in England in 1847, Charles Sotheran trained in the book trade with his uncle Henry Sotheran and built a reputation as a bibliographer and antiquarian before moving to the United States in 1874. In New York he worked as a journalist and editor, writing for a range of newspapers and magazines and helping run the New York Echo.
His interests ranged well beyond publishing. Sotheran was active in socialist politics in the United States and is described as a co-founder and member of the Socialist Labor Party of America in the 1870s. He was also involved in esoteric circles and was present at the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875; some accounts say he proposed the society's name after coming across the word "theosophy" in a dictionary.
As an author, he wrote and compiled books as well as bibliographic work for libraries. His career brought together literary culture, radical politics, and occult study in a way that makes him a striking minor figure of his era. He died in New York in 1902.