284:(CUFS) with Ben Keeling, a member of the (somewhat inactive) existing Fabian society in the town. CUFS was the first society at Cambridge to enlist women from its founding. Young women met regularly with men as equals and discussed everything from religious beliefs to social evils to sex, which would have been impossible in the conventional atmospheres of their homes.
33:
661:, you might make a little offering (if he does like offerings)... ...I have more faith in him now than in our own deity who seems to be letting us down all round." When Rivers died on 28 March 1966, Reeves was determined to keep living as normally as possible. She was visited by New Zealand historian
405:
By 1921, her vigour in the women workers' cause had led her to come up against ex-servicemen who exercised considerable power through their associations. She was told a deputation of MPs had approached the minister and claimed that no ex-serviceman could sleep in peace while she remained in the civil
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The life of washing up dishes in little separate houses and being necessarily subordinate in everything to the wage-earning man is I think very destructive to the women and to any opinion they may influence. It is humiliating and narrowing and there is nothing to be said in its favour... ...Oh how I
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was the first open declaration of the romantic relationship between the pair. Wells claimed that Reeves responded to his taste for adventurous eroticism, and the "sexual imaginativess" that his wife Jane could not cope with. Wells maintained that their relationship be kept silent, though Reeves saw
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for an account of the tremendous human rights abuses in the latter). She also contributed to a section on how wealth is accumulated by supplying case histories of new powers and forces "running wild and crazy in a last frenzy for private and personal gain". The chapter "The Role of Women in the
640:. She lectured at Morley for thirty-seven years, regularly revising her courses to incorporate an increased body of psychological thought. In 1946, she became acting principal after Hubback's death. When a new principal was appointed in 1947 she returned to lecturing and writing her book
311:
had been a friend of Reeves' parents and one of the most popular speakers to address the CUFS. After Reeves' address to the
Philosophical Society it was rumoured that she and Wells, one of the most prominent and prolific writers of the first half of the twentieth century, had gone to
336:
where they attempted domestic life together. Neither of them did well with domesticity; loneliness and anxiety concerning her pregnancy, as well as the complexity of the situation drove her to depression, and after three months they decided to leave Le
Touquet. Wells took her to
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and the railway men and the women in tenth hand velvet hats—when I saw their pinched grey-and-yellow faces in those steamy halls, I knew all of a sudden that they were my people." She soon became a member of the party and supported her husband as the Labour Party candidate for
299:
Philosophical
Society, "It seems to me quite the best college paper that I have read—I mean as treated by a young person and from a non-metaphysical point of view." A fellow student described her as "intellect personified" after a lecture she gave to the Philosophical Society.
652:
In July 1960, Rivers suffered a stroke which left him paralysed down his right side. Reeves was distraught and during the last years of his life she worried a lot and became depressed. She wrote to her daughter Anna-Jane, who was in
Singapore at the time, "If there is a
382:, in charge of a section that dealt with the employment of women. Part of her job was encouraging workers and employers to see that women were capable of a much wider range of tasks than was usually expected. She later took responsibility for women's wages at the
427:, she stated that if people choose to break ethical codes, they had to be prepared to cope with guilt. She also stated that if a wife was unfaithful, she should not tell her husband, writing, "if ever there is a case for a downright lie, this is it."
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which gave women the vote on the same terms as men, she was billed by the Fabian
Society to lecture on "The New Woman Voters and the Coming Election". However, she withdrew from this lecture to work on a by-election campaign for her husband in
345:. But then on 7 May 1909, she was married to Rivers Blanco White. In her latter life she wrote, "I did not arrange to marry Rivers; he arranged it with H.G, but I have always thought it the best that could possibly have happened."
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in London. Initially invited by her friend from
Cambridge Eva Hubback to help out, she became part of a team of lecturers in 1928, giving twice weekly classes on ethics and psychology. In 1929, the year after the passing of the
363:
published it in the autumn of 1909, when gossip concerning Wells was rampant. Wells later wrote that while the character of Ann
Veronica was based on Amber, the character he believed came closest to her was Amanda in his novel
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candidates. She choose to support Labour: "The
Liberal audiences were nice narrow decent people. They sat upright in rows and clapped their cotton gloves... But when I got to the Labour meetings in the slums, among the
269:
While at
Cambridge Reeves began to associate with other young women who shared her intellectual enthusiasms and socialist political leanings, forming a lifelong friendship with Eva Spielmann (later
402:, the secretary of the council, pointing out that Amber's termination was chiefly on the grounds that she was a married woman, and that letting her go from the public service was "really stupid".
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Reeves was anxious not to break up Wells's marriage, though she wanted to have his child. The news that she was pregnant in the spring of 1909 shocked the Reeves family, and the couple fled to
563:
World's Work" was included by Wells at Amber's suggestion, though after reading the chapter she asked him to include a disclaimer that she did not necessarily agree with what he said.
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Reeves published four novels and four non-fiction works, dealing with a variety of subjects, but all sharing a common socialist and feminist critique of capitalist society. These are:
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no reason their exciting affair be kept a secret. Once their relationship became well known, there were numerous attempts to break it up, particularly from Amber's mother and from
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that were common in the literary, intellectual and left-wing society at the time, but as they grew older these attitudes were beginning to change. Writing of marriage in her book
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service. She received a dismissal notice and, aside from time with the
Ministry of Labour in 1922, that was the end of her civil service career. She began to work on her book
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in September 1970). Although she enjoyed discussing politics and world affairs, she felt disillusioned about the socialist hopes of her youth, and supported the
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273:), who became an educationalist. She became involved in a number of societies, including the debating society. In 1907 she led the inter-collegiate debate with
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based on his relationship with Reeves. The novel was rejected by his publisher, Frederick Macmillan, because of the possible damage it would do; however,
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and put her on the ferry to England, while he stayed to continue his writing. Reeves went to stay with Wells and his wife Jane when they returned to
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There was some strain in her marriage with George Rivers Blanco White. In their youth they had both adopted positive attitudes toward the
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546:(1931). In this book, she researched and put together material on the devastation of the rubber trade on the native populations of
277:, arguing that "the socialist conception of life is the most noble and the most fruitful, both for the state and the individual."
370:. On 31 December 1909, she bore a daughter, Anna-Jane, who did not learn that her real father was H. G. Wells until she was 18.
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in 1905. It is unlikely her father raised further opposition as he always spoke highly of her academic achievements.
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until 1904, and then travelled to Europe to become fluent in French. Her father was not fully converted to the
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for a weekend. Their appearance together at a supper party thrown for fellow Fabian and
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Reeves attempted to get her theories on currency, later brought together in her book
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230:. Her widowed aunt, cousins, and servants joined the household in Cornwall Gardens,
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should like some hard work again that brought one up against outside life.
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219:(née Robison; 1865–1953) and New Zealand politician and social reformer
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The family moved to London in 1896, where her father became
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campaign, Reeves was asked to speak on behalf of both the
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in Lincolnshire. The seat had gone to the Liberals in
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In December 1981, she was admitted to a hospital in
430:In addition to Anna-Jane, Reeves had two children,
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253:; she chose Cambridge. Reeves then began studying
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831:. No. 2445. 17 September 1970. p. 41.
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37:Amber Reeves, with Anna-Jane, her daughter with
211:, New Zealand, the eldest of three children of
295:once wrote of an address she had given to the
438:, an architect. Justin married the biologist
689:and that only diehards would vote for them.
529:. For some time she was the editor of the
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543:The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind
796:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
727:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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122: 1909; died 1966)
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916:New Zealand socialist feminists
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440:Conrad Hal Waddington
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221:William Pember Reeves
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374:Work and family life
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444:Dusa McDuff
398:, wrote to
309:H. G. Wells
271:Eva Hubback
163:Dusa McDuff
57:1 July 1887
39:H. G. Wells
870:Categories
809:18 January
700:References
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232:Kensington
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558:(see the
291:in 1908.
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622:Teaching
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339:Boulogne
197:feminist
130:Children
97:Feminism
681:in the
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586:costers
577:Liberal
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432:Thomas
275:Girton
213:Fabian
193:Reeves
139:Justin
135:Thomas
102:Spouse
41:(1910)
520:Vogue
514:Queen
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833:ISSN
811:2024
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659:K.L.
579:and
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