Blind, Mathilde |
| POET, NOVELIST, CRITIC (GERMANY) |
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BORN 21 Mar 1847, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg - DIED 26 Nov 1896, London BIRTH NAME Cohen, Mathilde CAUSE OF DEATH uterine cancer GRAVE LOCATION London: St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery and Islington Crematorium, 278 High Road, East Finchley (ashes (near the grave of Ford Madox Brown)) |
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Mathilde Blind was born Mathilde Cohen, but in her youth she adapted her stepfather Karl Blind's name. Her real father, a Jewish banker, died soon after her birth. When she was eight years old the family had to move to Belgium because of Karl Blind's revolutionary activities. They moved on to London and there they were visited by Karl Marx, Joseph Mazzini, Guiseppe Garibaldi and others. Mathilde was kicked out of school because of her atheism and when she was eighteen years old she travelled through Switzerland on her own. She continued travelling and she left her parents' home when she was thirty. She never married and socially she mostly met with women. In 1888 she published "The Ascent of Man", an epic based on Darwin's theory of evolution. She also wrote books about George Eliot and Madame Roland. During the mid 1880s she mostly lived in Manchester where Ford Madox Brown and his wife were close friends. In 1890 she published her translation of the journal of Marie Bashkirtseff. Her last poems were written in Stratford-upon-Avon. She died in 1896 and left her belongings to Newnham College, Cambridge. Her ashes were buried at St. Pancras Cemetery in Finchley, London near the graves of her friends Ford Madox Brown and Ludwig Mond. Her monument was paid for by Ludwig Mond and constructed by M. Lanteri. Related persons • is stepson/stepdaughter of Blind, Karl • admired Byron, George Noel Gordon • wrote about Eliot, George • was supported by Madox Brown, Ford • was drawn by Madox Brown, Lucy • was a friend of Mond, Ludwig |
| Images |
 The grave of Mathilde Blind at the St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery, London. Picture by Androom (27 May 2014) |
Sources • Vincent, Benjamin, Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, and Universal Information, Ward, Lock & Co, London, 1906 • Mathilde Blind - Wikipedia (EN) |
