Zum Inhalt springen

Gavin Arthur

aus Wikipedia, der freien Enzyklopädie
Dies ist eine alte Version dieser Seite, zuletzt bearbeitet am 28. November 2023 um 08:00 Uhr durch en>WikiCleanerBot (v2.05b - Bot T20 CW#61 - Fix errors for CW project (Reference before punctuation)). Sie kann sich erheblich von der aktuellen Version unterscheiden.

Vorlage:Short description Vorlage:Good article Vorlage:Use mdy dates Vorlage:Infobox person

Chester Alan "Gavin" Arthur III (March 21, 1901 – April 28, 1972) was an American astrologer and sexologist. He was the grandson of Chester A. Arthur, the twenty-first president of the United States. He received his early education from Columbia College and later joined the Philolexian Society. He left his college and participated in the Irish Republican Movement. During his time in Ireland, he began going by the name Gavin.

Arthur founded Dune Forum, a short-lived cultural magazine aimed to spread alternating religious and political ideologies. After his father's death, he inherited various official documents, including newspapers during the time of his grandfather's presidency and presidential memento. In the 1950s, due to financial instability, Arthur sold newspapers on the streets of San Francisco. In the 1960s, he published The Circle of Sex, where he claimed that he had developed sexual intimacy with Edward Carpenter. He also claimed that Carpenter had had sexual relations with American author Walt Whitman. Arthur died in 1972; he was the last living descendant of the Arthur family. Most of his papers and official documents were donated to the Library of Congress.

Early life and education

Chester Alan Arthur III was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on March 21, 1901, to Chester Alan Arthur II and his wife, Myra Fithian Andrews. He was the grandson of Chester A. Arthur, twenty-first president of the United States. Arthur II was an indirect stakeholder in the Trinchera Estate, a Vorlage:Convert ranch which was one of the main source of income for his family.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn During the early 1920s, Arthur studied at Columbia College in New York;Vorlage:Sfn he was a member of the Class of 1924Vorlage:Sfn and also of the Philolexian Society.Vorlage:Sfn Arthur was an admirer of the works of the British poet and activist Edward Carpenter.Vorlage:Sfn

Arthur's childhood home in Colorado Springs, ColoradoVorlage:Sfn

Career

Early career

After leaving college, Arthur worked in the Irish Republican Movement, living in New York, France, and Ireland.Vorlage:Sfn While in Europe, Arthur and his wife Charlotte had roles in the 1930 avant-garde film Borderline, which also starred H.D. and Paul Robeson.Vorlage:Sfn In the early 1930s, he moved to Pismo Beach, California, and began going by the name "Gavin",.Vorlage:Sfn Arthur founded an art and literature commune and published a short-lived magazine, Dune Forum,Vorlage:Sfn with an intention to "express the creative thought of America looking not toward Europe but toward the West" and spread alternating religious and political ideologies.Vorlage:Sfn Amy Hart wrote that the magazine was a "platform where Dunites could express their varied worldviews and religious ideals".Vorlage:Sfn Dunites were group of artists and mystics who lived in Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes from the 1930s till 1950s.Vorlage:Sfn Arthur, one of the most famous dunite, described the group as "intensely individualistic, with ideas as different one from another as any in the country" in the Dune Forum.Vorlage:Sfn The magazine was released in seven issues between 1933 and 1934.Vorlage:Sfn

In 1934, Arthur joined the Utopian Society of America.Vorlage:Sfn Between 1936 and 1937, he wrote six articles published in Labor Defender and he served as an editor with Langston Hughes. Upon his father's death in 1937, all of Arthur II's financial assets were distributed equally between his son Gavin and his wife. He inherited various receipts, bills, checkbooks, presidential mementos, newspaper clippings from his grandfather's presidency, and correspondence letters from politicians such as Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Millard Fillmore, James G. Blaine, among others. He received typed copies of various important documents.Vorlage:Sfn Arthur served as secretary of the California Democratic Party in 1940, during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but resigned the following year, convinced that the party had betrayed his principles.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn During World War II, Arthur served in the United States Army and the Merchant navy.Vorlage:Sfn

After the war, Arthur moved to New York and undertook the writing of a family history, which was never completed.Vorlage:Sfn Returning to California in 1949, Arthur taught classes at San Quentin State Prison for many years. In 1952, he finished his bachelor's degree at San Francisco State College.Vorlage:Sfn Often low on funds, Arthur sold newspapers on the streets of San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s.Vorlage:Sfn At the same time, he began to gain fame as an astrologer.Vorlage:Sfn

The Circle of Sex

A sexologist by profession,Vorlage:Sfn Arthur published The Circle of Sex in 1962 that analyzed human sexuality through the lens of yin-yang polarities. Rather than the linear scale developed by Alfred Kinsey, Arthur envisioned sexuality as a wheel with twelve orientations, six for each sex.Vorlage:Sfn The twelve types corresponded to the 12-hours dial clock and Arthur illustrated each with a historical archetype, like Don Juan, Sappho, and Lady C.Vorlage:Sfn In 1966, he published an enlarged edition of the same title. In that edition, he claimed that on his first visit with Carpenter, they both developed a sexual intimacy.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn Carpenter later told him that he had been sexual with American author Walt Whitman as well.Vorlage:Sfn Arthur, bisexual himself,Vorlage:Sfn was said to have been intimate with Neal Cassady as well.Vorlage:Sfn

Astrology and later career

Arthur was friend to many people of the Beat Generation, including Allen Ginsberg and Alan Watts.Vorlage:Sfn He was active in the early gay rights movement, and was also a leader of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture.Vorlage:Sfn Arthur used his astrology to decide the date for the first "Human Be-In" event on January 14, 1967. Over 30,000 people,Vorlage:Sfn including many Gypsies attended the event.Vorlage:Sfn During the presidency of John F. Kennedy, according to The New York Times, he helped the first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to "locate art objects stored and forgotten by previous Presidential occupants".Vorlage:Sfn Arthur believed he was in spiritual connections with local Chumash Indians.Vorlage:Sfn According to various of his friends, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill,Vorlage:Sfn Arthur would refer to himself as a "pre-hippie hippie".Vorlage:Sfn

Personal life and death

Refer to the caption
Gavin with his second wife Esther Murphy Strachey in the 1940s

Arthur was married three times in his life. In 1922, he married Charlotte Joy Johnson, divorcing her in 1932. Three years later, he wed Esther Murphy Strachey, whom he divorced in 1961. His final marriage, to Ellen Jansen, took place in 1965.Vorlage:Sfn

Arthur died on April 28, 1972, at the Fort Miley Veterans Hospital in San Francisco.Vorlage:Sfn He is buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery.Vorlage:Sfn Having no children of his own, he was the last living descendant of his grandfather, President Chester A. Arthur. His papers, including many family papers, were given to the Library of Congress soon after his death.Vorlage:Sfn Philip Avillo wrote that "Throughout his life, Arthur cultivated a wide variety of people, including political leaders, writers, entertainers, sexologists, and social misfits and outcasts."Vorlage:Sfn

References

Vorlage:Reflist

Works cited

Vorlage:Refbegin

Vorlage:Refend


Vorlage:Chester A. Arthur

Vorlage:Portal bar

Abgerufen von „https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gavin_Arthur&oldid=256540285“