Gerald Gould (1885 – 2 November 1936) was an English writer, known as a journalist and reviewer, essayist and poet.
He was born inScarborough,Yorkshire,[1] and brought up inNorwich, and studied atUniversity College London andMagdalen College, Oxford. He had a position at University College from 1906, and was a Fellow ofMerton College, Oxford, from 1909 to 1916.[2][3]
Gould had assisted the production of the edition ofThe Suffragette when the offices of theWSPU had been raided to review at the printers, whilst Grace Roe was going to Paris to speak to the Pankhursts.[4]
On 6 February 1914 he and his wifeBarbara Ayrton-Gould became two of the founders of theUnited Suffragists, which had male and female members, includingAgnes Harben and her husband,[5] and welcomed former militant and non-militants.[6] The United Suffragists ended their campaign when theRepresentation of the People Act 1918 gave women limited suffrage in the United Kingdom.[6]
From 1914 he was an official inC. F. G. Masterman's Wellington HouseWar Propaganda Bureau, which may explain his failure to produce much poetry concerned with the War.[7] He also worked as a journalist on theDaily Herald as one of "Lansbury's Lambs" — the group of idealistic young men helping with it afterGeorge Lansbury purchased it in 1913, and which includedG. D. H. Cole,W. N. Ewer,Harold Laski,William Mellor andFrancis Meynell.
It was probably Gould who broughtSiegfried Sassoon to the paper as literary editor after its relaunch in 1919.[8] Gould regularly contributed poetry to theHerald and gave several sonnets toMillicent Fawcett'sCommon Cause when it became theWoman's Leader in 1920.
Gould also reviewed novels for theNew Statesman, moving toThe Observer as fiction editor in 1920. He was also (not coincidentally) made chief reader forVictor Gollancz Ltd, where he was involved in the early publication history ofGeorge Orwell. He died in 1936 in London.[9]
Gould marriedBarbara Bodichon Ayrton (1888–1950),suffragist and after his death on theLabour National Executive and aLabour Party MP 1945–1950; she was daughter of the scientistsWilliam Edward Ayrton andHertha Marks Ayrton. The artistMichael Ayrton (1921–1975) was their son.[10]
His poemWander-thirst is often quoted.
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