Charles Kegan Paul

Charles Kegan Paul (8 March 1828 – 19 July 1902), usually known as Kegan Paul, was an English author, publisher and former Anglican cleric. He began his adult life as a priest of the Church of England and held various ministry positions for more than 20 years. His religious orientation moved from the orthodoxy of the Church of England to first Agnosticism, then Positivism and finally Roman Catholicism.

Early life Paul was born on 8 March 1828 at Whitelackington, Somerset, the eldest of 10 children of the Reverend Charles Paul (18021861) and Frances Kegan Horne (18021848) of Bath, Somerset. He was educated first at Ilminster Grammar School (1836–39), at later at Eton College where he entered Dr Hawtrey's house in 1841 at 13 years of age. Paul matriculated on 29 January 1846 at age 17 and entered Exeter College, Oxford. He received his B.A. degree three years later, in 1849. He was a teetotaller and vegetarian.

Ordained ministry Paul was ordained deacon in Lent 1851

St Mary's Church, Sturminster Marshall, where Paul was vicar for 12 yearsHe left teaching ar Eton in 1862 and was appointed vicar to Sturminster Marshall, Dorset, a living in the gift of Eton. It was not a large living, being worth less than £300 a year. He ministered there for 12 years. He associated with Joseph Arch's movement on behalf of agricultural labourers in Dorset. Finding himself more and more out of sympathy with the teachings of the Church of England, he abandoned his living and went to London.

Following his writings on William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, he was of material assistance in helping Elizabeth Robins Pennell write the first full-length biography of the latter.

After a fire in 1883 and other problems, the firm was amalgamated with two other publisher, George Redway, who became a partner, and the heirs of Nicholas Trübner. The new firm, now a Limited Company titled Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd, moved into larger premises in 1891. The firm did well until 1895, when the profits fell suddenly. Redway and Paul lost the confidence of the shareholders and were effectively forced out. Paul retired, having been badly injured in an accident some months earlier.

While the board accepted Paul's resignation, he remained on good terms with the firm, and they published two more of his translations, as well as his Memories and his volume of verse. The firm was eventually merged with George Routledge in 1912.

Works Paul wrote that although he had been a pretty frequent writer in periodicals and of pamphlets and prefaces, these could be ignored in his bibliography as he had collected in books all that are worth preserving.

As an author he thought nine of his works as worthy of preserving: In Memories Paul acknowledges the help provided by one of his pupils, Richard Brandt, in revising the text and preserving him from the foolish blunders made by other translators. Paul reports that the book had a considerable success and that he had often thought of issuing a condensed volume, but that his own views had changed so much that a lot of changes and explanations would be needed in the revision. Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft (1879) Biographical Sketches Biographical Sketches (1883) The sketches are of: Edward Irving, John Keble, Maria Hare the wife of Augustus William Hare, Rowland Williams, Charles Kingsley, George Eliot, and John Henry Newman The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal: Translated from the text of M. Auguste Molinier (1885) Maria Drummond (1891) Mrs. Drummond was a friend of Paul's and he wrote the short memoir at the request of her surviving daughters, who gave him a free hand to do so. Faith and Unfaith (1891), a collection of seven essays. Paul describes this as a collection of scattered essays such as seemed to me worth preserving and by which I should wish to be remembered . . . Ill health prevented Paul from translating the final volume in the trilogy. Howsham states that the publication of this volume and Memories by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. in 1899, show that Paul was still on good terms with his former firm.

Family and later life

He married Margaret Agnes Colville, daughter of Andrew Colville (1779–1856), businessman and administrator. Her siblings included James William Colvile, a judge in colonial India; Eden Colvile, Governor of Rupert's Land and the Hudson's Bay Company; Isabella Colville, mother of football pioneer Francis Marindin; and Georgiana Mary, Baroness Blatchford. Their son Eden Paul (1865–1944) was a socialist physician, writer and translator.

Paul was badly injured in a traffic accident while crossing Hammersmith Road in 1895, and the injury left him with chronic pain for the rest of his life. He was living at 9 Avonmore Road, West Kensington, London when he died on 19 July 1902. His estate was valued at £2,897 9s. 10d.

His portrait had been painted by Anna Lea Merritt and was in the possession of his daughter in 1912.