Alton Locke was a poor, Cockney retail tradesman’s son. His father had invested all his money in a small shop that failed; by contrast, his uncle had prospered and now owned several grocery stores. Desperately poor, Alton’s widowed mother asked the uncle to find Alton a position as a
tailor’s apprentice. The tailor’s establishment was Alton’s first experience of the world outside his mother’s strict Baptist household. The workroom was close, stinking, and filthy, and most of the other tailors were gross, vulgar, and irreverent. Alton was, however, drawn to a coworker, John Crossthwaite, who was more thoughtful than the others. Locke wanted to improve himself by reading. Having exhausted his mother’s few narrow Calvinist theological tomes, he discovered a used-book shop. The shop owner, Sandy Mackaye, befriended him, lent him books, and gave him a place to live after his mother evicted him for reading secular books.
One morning, Alton was summoned to his uncle’s office for an interview, during which he met his cousin George, who was about to enter Cambridge University. Together, they visited an art gallery, where Alton saw the beautiful Lillian Winnstay, her father Dean Winnstay, and her friend Eleanor Staunton. Alton instantly fell in love with Lillian, and spent the following year looking for her in London and feeling bitter toward the gentlemen who could visit her because of their rank in society. His frustration found release in
poetry. At first, he wrote mannered, Byronic trash until under Sandy Mackaye’s guidance he found his poetic voice in poetry that described the lives of the poor
workers of London.
Meanwhile, Alton’s employer, wanting to increase his profit margin, changed to the "show-trade"—cheap, flashy, ready-to-wear clothing—and ordered his workers to do piecework at home for much lower wages. John Crossthwaite organized a protest, which Locke joined, but they lost their jobs when Jemmy Downes, one of their number, reported them to the employer. Angered at this injustice and under Crossthwaite’s influence, Alton joined the Chartist movement, which advocated the vote for workingmen. Sandy Mackaye thought that Alton was too young to become involved in politics; he advised him to visit his cousin George in Cambridge and ask him for help in finding a publisher for his poetry.
Alton’s stay at Cambridge was memorable for several reasons: He came to know his cousin better and was at last introduced to the people he had seen at the gallery so long before. George had decided to become an Anglican priest, despite his lack of either preparation or belief, in order to obtain security. Being self-centered, George made little effort to help Alton, but he did introduce him to Lord Lynedale, another Cambridge student. Lynedale proved to respect Alton’s abilities, despite their difference in rank, and he was interested in improving the agricultural workers on his family estates and helpful in finding a publisher. He introduced Alton to Dean Winnstay, who arranged for publication of the poetry. The dean, however, asked Alton to omit certain crucial passages that he thought politically subversive. Alton agreed, as it was the only way to see his work in print. Through the dean, Alton met Eleanor Staunton. Eleanor was sympathetic to the plight of the working classes but argued that workers and clergy should be reconciled. The cause of the hostility between the two, she averred, was the workers’ lack of self-discipline and self-restraint. Once workers improved their behavior, she said, they would win the clergy’s confidence.
Feeling guilty about having betrayed his poetry, Alton returned to London and made his living with hack writing for the popular press, especially for Feargus O’Flynn’s Weekly Warwhoop, while waiting for his book of poetry to appear in print. When at last it did, Alton resumed contact with his upper-class acquaintances. He learned that his cousin George was pursuing ordination and planned to marry Lillian and that Eleanor and Lynedale had married, but that the latter had died in an accident. Alton also continued his Chartist activities. Although O’Flynn turned against him, Alton represented the London Chartists at a rally; when the rally turned into a riot, he was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail. He was released just in time to help present the People’s Charter (a petition calling for enactment of the Chartist movement’s democratic goals) to Parliament on April 10, 1848.
Sandy Mackaye had long warned Alton and Crossthwaite that the Chartist movement was too influenced by rogues and demagogues like Feargus O’Flynn and that the Charter itself was filled with false signatures; with his dying breath, he predicted that the attempt to present it would prove a disaster. Meanwhile, Crossthwaite and Alton dreamt of revolution and prepared for streetfighting. When April 10 arrived, Mackaye was proven correct. The Chartist leaders, fearing arrest, fled the rally, the London workers ignored the presentation, and the meeting broke up in disarray. As Alton, despairing, walked the streets, he met the betrayer Jemmy Downes, now living in poverty. Jemmy’s wife and children, dead of fever and starvation, lay covered by the coats they had been sewing. Alton called for help, but it came too late to prevent Jemmy from committing suicide.
Alton’s despair deepened into illness and delirium. Nursed back to health by Eleanor and Crossthwaite, Alton became convinced that the Bible was the true Charter, that workers should earn their rights by reforming their characters, and that class cooperation rather than class conflict was the prerequisite for bringing God’s kingdom to pass. Alton also learned that the coats that had shrouded Jemmy’s family had infected George and Lillian, killing the former and destroying the latter’s beauty. As he came to learn of Eleanor’s charitable activities among the London poor, Alton realized that he had loved the wrong woman, but he found the opportunity for redemption. Sandy Mackaye had bequeathed him money on condition that he and Crossthwaite emigrate. Eleanor could not go with them, for her health was declining, so Alton and the Crossthwaite family set sail for Texas. The night their ship arrived on the American shore, Alton died. His last written words were a poem, calling for a day of hope between workers and gentlemen.
More reviews about the Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet