8. Augustus De Morgan and the Bloomsbury Milieu

Abstract

Augustus De Morgan lived in Bloomsbury, never more than a quarter of an hour’s walk from University College’s premises, for around a decade and a half during the early part of his career; even after he and his family moved slightly north of Euston he worked in Bloomsbury until his resignation from the College in 1866. Always a sociable man with wide connections, he was part of several Bloomsbury-based networks, including staff of the London University (later, University College) and the somewhat overlapping group of writers involved in the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, as well as the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society, several of whom were near neighbours and close friends of the De Morgans in Bloomsbury. Drawing on recent historical work on Victorian literary and scientific life, this essay explores De Morgan in the context of the intellectual, political and social milieux of his Bloomsbury surroundings.