The Enigma Of John Bingleys Poem The Fair Quakers 1713 And A Challenge To Quaker Historians

The Enigma of John Bingley’s Poem The Fair Quakers 1713 and a Challenge to Quaker Historians (1996) by Derek Forbes
Blot Publishing | ISBN: 9781900929011
Condition: Good
As sold by Crappy Old Books

Some books are content to mind their own business, present a few facts, and retire quietly to the shelf. Others arrive with rather more determination, armed with a historical puzzle, a literary curiosity, and the distinct air of someone prepared to challenge an entire field of specialist opinion before luncheon. The Enigma of John Bingley’s Poem The Fair Quakers 1713 and a Challenge to Quaker Historians is very much in that second category.

This is not, one feels safe in saying, a casual beach read. It belongs to that marvellous and slightly endangered species of book produced because one person became properly fascinated by something obscure, elusive, and historically awkward, and refused to let it go. In this case the subject is John Bingley’s 1713 poem The Fair Quakers, together with the questions, implications, and historiographical ripples surrounding it. Already the title promises a richly specific world of literary investigation, dissenting history, and the sort of scholarly persistence that keeps civilisation going while the rest of us are distracted by biscuits.

There is something deeply admirable about a book like this. It assumes, with no trace of apology, that a three-hundred-year-old poem connected with Quaker history may contain mysteries worth unpicking, and that historians of the Society of Friends may perhaps need a little firm prodding in the right direction. One can almost hear the polite but unmistakable rustle of academic sleeves being rolled up.

Derek Forbes appears here not merely as an author but as a pursuer of clues, a literary detective in pursuit of a narrow but evidently intriguing question. Such works often prove unexpectedly rewarding, because they reveal how much human drama and interpretive tension can be hidden inside apparently specialised subjects. A poem is never just a poem for very long once historians arrive. Before you know it, questions of authorship, context, motive, reception, and reputation are all marching onto the page demanding attention.

The Quakers themselves, of course, are commonly associated with plainness, restraint, and admirable moral seriousness. This only makes the idea of an “enigma” involving The Fair Quakers all the more enticing. One senses at once that there may be complications beneath the calm surface: literary ambiguities, biographical uncertainties, historical assumptions in need of revision, and the pleasing possibility that even the most decorous corners of eighteenth-century religious culture were not entirely free from puzzlement and dispute.

Published in 1996 by Blot Publishing, this is exactly the sort of independent, sharply focused historical pamphlet or monograph that turns up in the second-hand trade like a small intellectual landmine. To the uninitiated it may seem improbably specialised; to the right reader it is catnip. Local historians, Quaker researchers, eighteenth-century scholars, collectors of eccentric scholarship, and anyone who enjoys books with titles long enough to clear a mantelpiece will find much to appreciate here.

There is also, naturally, a quiet irony in the whole enterprise. Modern publishing tends to prefer books with broad appeal, concise subtitles, and some claim to transform your life in six easy lessons. This volume offers instead a challenge to Quaker historians over a poem from 1713. Which is precisely why it has character. It has not been streamlined for the market. It exists because the matter itself was deemed worth pursuing, and that gives it a kind of integrity no marketing department could improve upon.

This copy is in good condition, showing the expected signs of age and handling but remaining perfectly sound, presentable, and ready for fresh consultation. It is the sort of book one imagines being read with pencil in hand and a growing sense of scholarly intrigue.

An excellent item for collectors of Quaker history, literary scholarship, historical curiosities, and the noble art of highly specific academic disagreement. The Enigma of John Bingley’s Poem The Fair Quakers 1713 and a Challenge to Quaker Historians offers exactly what its splendidly uncompromising title suggests: mystery, argument, and the enduring pleasure of a writer refusing to let a historical question rest quietly in peace.

Keep browsing: See more Poetry books Other books by Derek Forbes