Educated at the French & German College, Wimbledon and a school at Mitcham, Ellis, who had already traveled extensively with his father when he was seven, left England for Australia in 1875. There he took a job as a tutor and subsequently a master at a grammar school. He returned to England in 1879 and began studying medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital. In 1883, he joined the Fellowship of the New Life, among whose members were George Bernard Shaw and Edward Carpenter. In 1890, he published his first works, The Criminal and The New Spirit. Ellis married Edith Lees, the English author and confirmed lesbian, in 1891, but they continued to live separately in what Ellis termed, an "open marriage". Ellis suffered from impotency and perhaps this goes some way in explaining his interest in the study of sex. In 1897, in collaboration with John Addington Symonds, he published Sexual Inversion, the first English medical textbook on homosexuality, and one which was initially banned in Britain. Some of Ellis' concepts, such as autoerotism and narcissism, were later adopted by Sigmund Freud. Ellis continued his sexual exploration, publishing six volumes of Studies in the Psychology of Sex, between 1897 and 1910. He added a seventh volume in 1928. Ellis was also a proponent of eugenics and published The Task of Social Hygiene in 1912 to support his theories. He was also a masterful essayist and also wrote plays and fictional works. His works include A Study of British Genius (1904), The Soul of Spain (1908), The World of Dreams (1911), The Philosophy of Conflict (1919), Kanga Creek (1922), The Dance of Life (1923), Views and Reviews (1932), My Confessional (1934) and My Life (1939). |
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