Joseph Bibby: Difference between revisions

From Theosophy Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 4: Line 4:
'''Joseph Bibby''' (1851–1940) was an English industrialist and member of the [[Theosophical Society (Adyar)|Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India]] He is best known as the editor of ''Bibby's Annual''.  
'''Joseph Bibby''' (1851–1940) was an English industrialist and member of the [[Theosophical Society (Adyar)|Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India]] He is best known as the editor of ''Bibby's Annual''.  


== Biographical information ==
== Family life ==


Mr. Bibby was a Lancashire businessman whose firm manufactured animal feed and soap.<ref>T. A. B. Corley, "Bibby, Joseph (1851–1940)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 2004. Available online by subscription at [http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/46631 this website].</ref>
Clara Codd wrote of the Bibby family:
<blockquote>
He lived in a beautiful house and grounds near Birkenhead; and all his eight children, six boys and two girls, lived with him. I never met a happier family. They never quarreled and when the sons married, they built another house near their father's Two of his sons were killed in the first world war and another was badly wounded... Mrs. Bibby was a frail, sweet little lady of Quaker extraction... she started life with him in a working-man's cottage.
 
Often have I stayed at the Bibby's home. The first time I went there, the youngest boy and girl met me at the train. I noticed they were convulsed with giggles. At home Mrs. Bibby said to me: "You won't mind, but the children were so funny. I asked them if they found you easily, and they said, 'Oh! Yes Mama, there was such a strong smell of fish about.'"<ref>Clara Codd, ''So Rich a Life'' (Pretoria: Institute for Theosophical Publicity, 1956), 103-104.</ref>
</blockquote>
 
== Business ==
 
Mr. Bibby's manufacturing business produced soap and animal feed, such as oil cakes for cattle.<ref>T. A. B. Corley, "Bibby, Joseph (1851–1940)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 2004. Available online by subscription at [http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/46631 this website].</ref>


== Theosophic Society involvement ==
== Theosophic Society involvement ==
Line 13: Line 22:


== Publication of ''Bibby's Annual'' ==
== Publication of ''Bibby's Annual'' ==
Of this enterprise, Clara Codd wrote,
<blockquote>
His great delight was the editing of his famous Bibby's Annual. Many will remember its outstanding articles and its gloriously reproduced pictures. The articles were his way of helping the Theosophical Society, though he also gave large sums of money, too. Sometimes I would go with him to picture galleries of all kinds to find pictures to reproduce in his magazine. Because he would accept no advertisements, he lost, so he told me, a regular £1,000 a year on his journal. But he willingly lost it because of the good it did. It had a circulation all over the world of about one million. As far away as New Zealand did I discover Bibby's Annual."<ref>Clara Codd, ''So Rich a Life'' (Pretoria: Institute for Theosophical Publicity, 1956), 103-104.</ref>
</blockquote


== Notes ==
== Notes ==

Revision as of 19:19, 28 November 2016

ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Joseph Bibby

Joseph Bibby (1851–1940) was an English industrialist and member of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India He is best known as the editor of Bibby's Annual.

Family life

Clara Codd wrote of the Bibby family:

He lived in a beautiful house and grounds near Birkenhead; and all his eight children, six boys and two girls, lived with him. I never met a happier family. They never quarreled and when the sons married, they built another house near their father's Two of his sons were killed in the first world war and another was badly wounded... Mrs. Bibby was a frail, sweet little lady of Quaker extraction... she started life with him in a working-man's cottage.

Often have I stayed at the Bibby's home. The first time I went there, the youngest boy and girl met me at the train. I noticed they were convulsed with giggles. At home Mrs. Bibby said to me: "You won't mind, but the children were so funny. I asked them if they found you easily, and they said, 'Oh! Yes Mama, there was such a strong smell of fish about.'"[1]

Business

Mr. Bibby's manufacturing business produced soap and animal feed, such as oil cakes for cattle.[2]

Theosophic Society involvement

Bibby met young Clara Codd, who became a frequent visitor to the Bibby home. He proposed to send Clara for a two-year course at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Adyar, Madras, India, and financed the trip.

Publication of Bibby's Annual

Of this enterprise, Clara Codd wrote,

His great delight was the editing of his famous Bibby's Annual. Many will remember its outstanding articles and its gloriously reproduced pictures. The articles were his way of helping the Theosophical Society, though he also gave large sums of money, too. Sometimes I would go with him to picture galleries of all kinds to find pictures to reproduce in his magazine. Because he would accept no advertisements, he lost, so he told me, a regular £1,000 a year on his journal. But he willingly lost it because of the good it did. It had a circulation all over the world of about one million. As far away as New Zealand did I discover Bibby's Annual."[3] </blockquote

Notes

  1. Clara Codd, So Rich a Life (Pretoria: Institute for Theosophical Publicity, 1956), 103-104.
  2. T. A. B. Corley, "Bibby, Joseph (1851–1940)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. Available online by subscription at this website.
  3. Clara Codd, So Rich a Life (Pretoria: Institute for Theosophical Publicity, 1956), 103-104.