Ernest William Radford (1857–1919) was anEnglish poet, critic andsocialist. He was a follower ofWilliam Morris, and one of the organisers in theArts and Crafts Movement; he acted as secretary to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.^[1]

He was also one of theRhymers' Club group of poets of the 1890s, contributing to the two anthologies they produced. He married Caroline Maitland in 1883 (1858–1920), generally known asDollie Radford, and also a poet and writer.^[2]

He was the son of George David Radford, a draper inPlymouth; the writerAda Wallas, was his sister.^[3] Another sister, Florence Amelia, was the mother ofArthur Ewart Popham. He was educated at Amersham Hall school, nearReading, Berkshire. He matriculated atTrinity Hall, Cambridge in 1874, graduating LL.B. in 1878 and LL.M. in 1885. He entered theMiddle Temple in 1876, and wascalled to the bar in 1880.^[4][5][6][7]

In the early 1880s, Radford associated with the circle ofKarl Marx and his family.^[8] He published poems in 1884 in the journalProgress, edited byEdward Aveling, withEleanor Marx and his future wife Caroline Maitland.^[9] In 1888 he had a position with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, lasting to 1892.^[10][11]

Radford became an aesthetic socialist, in the style of William Morris.^[12] TheEncyclopedia of Social Reform (1897) in its article "Art and Social Reform" cites Mary Bacon Ford, who reported that Radford was called the "Young Tribune", among Morris's supporters, and was one of the lecturers atToynbee Hall.^[13] Through debates at the Morrises Radford metWalter Crane, who provided an illustration of one of his books. Crane, who was president of the while Radford was secretary, described him as an extension lecturer.^[14][15]

Radford and his wife both joined theSocialist League.^[16]Ernest Rhys, however, a good friend of Radford's, described him as a "casual disciple" of Morris, also a wit, effective speaker, and reviewer for thePall Mall Gazette.^[17] The Radfords did move toHammersmith, to be closer to the Morrises.^[18]

Radford was a close friend ofGeorge Bernard Shaw from 1885 for a number of years; they were introduced byWilliam Archer. He became aFabian Society member.^[19][20] With Shaw he later spoke in favour of the Fabian Arts Group, in 1907.^[21] He also participated in theMen and Women's Club of the later 1880s.^[18]

As secretary convening the Rhymers' Club, Radford used his position in 1891 to invite the publisherElkin Mathews.^[22] He later used Mathews to draw inW. B. Yeats as a literary ally.^[23]

From 1892 Radford suffered from mental illness, after a breakdown in which he threatened to shoot an editor who had rejected his work.^[24] Later in life he required Dollie's care.^[25][26]

• From Heine (1882) translations
• Measured Steps (1884)
• The Poems of Walter Savage Landor (1889)
• Chambers Twain (1890)
• Old And New (1895)
• A Collection of Poems (1906) with others
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1908) biography
• Songs In The Whirlwind (1918) withAda Radford

• Livesey, Ruth (2006). "Dollie Radford and the Ethical Aesthetics of 'Fin-de-Siècle' Poetry".Victorian Literature and Culture.34 (2):495–517.doi:10.1017/S1060150306051291.JSTOR 25056317.S2CID 162470742.
• Livesey, Ruth (2007). "Socialism in Bloomsbury: Virginia Woolf and the Political Aesthetics of the 1880s".The Yearbook of English Studies.37 (1):126–144.doi:10.1353/yes.2007.0038.JSTOR 20479282.S2CID 245852897.
• Nelson, James G. (1987). "Elkin Mathews, W. B. Yeats, and the Celtic Movement in Literature".Journal of Modern Literature.14 (1):17–33.JSTOR 3831338.
• Peter Whitebrook (1993).William Archer: A Biography. Methuen.ISBN 978-0-413-65520-2.

• "Archival material relating to Ernest Radford".UK National Archives.