Athenaeum

Michael Wheeler was director of the project to build the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University and is now a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton. Among his books are Heaven, Hell, and the Victorians and Ruskin’s God.

“Wheeler's aim was not to produce a "traditional, insular" club history but rather a study of the influence of Athenians (as members are known) on public life. Their achievements are indeed bountifully recorded, along with their titles, joining dates and modes of admission.”—David Gelber, Times Literary Supplement“[This] copiously illustrated book is yet another sumptuous product from Yale University Press.”—Richard Chartres, Church Times“Underlining all the social and professional connections between the now more or less famous individuals who were elected members, not forgetting their links of friendship...[Wheeler] thus produces a sort of intellectual portrait of several decades, with references to the cultural and political battles which were fought in Britain all through the last two centuries.”—Laurent Bury, Cercles“Michael Wheeler’s excellent new study provides an intellectual biography of a London landmark, one whose members were often central to the intellectual, scientific and intellectual life of the nation.”—Bruce Boucher, The Burlington Magazine  “Scholarly, impish, outward-looking, and eminently readable. This is how club histories should be written.”—Seth Alexander Thévoz, The London Journal  “This is surely the most well documented account of the foundations and early history of the Athenaeum published to date…For someone wishing for an intimate and incredibly well documented story of the Athenaeum club and its members, this will be a useful and entertaining read.”—Amy Milne-Smith, English Historical Review"Wheeler’s book is in many ways as stately and elegant as Decimus Burton’s building.”—Rohan McWilliam, Cultural and Social History‘Wheeler plays at the top of his game in this history of a national institution, and in his account of the brilliant intellects, the innovators, the dissidents and the world authorities who have been its members over the course of two centuries.’—Richard Davenport-Hines‘A scholarly account, by an insider, of a private London club, an establishment niche which allows for eccentricity.  The membership has always included enough of the most eminent people of the time, from politicians to poets, to create a discreet safe haven where private and public life converge. Wheeler reveals the Athenaeum as a significant funny-bone in the anatomy of Britain.’—Victoria Glendinning