Eva Collet Reckitt
Socialist bookseller
Eva Collet Reckitt (28 June 1890 – 24 September 1976) was the founder of the left-wing bookshop Collet's on Charing Cross Road, London, UK, in 1933.
Biography
Eva Collet Reckitt was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, on 28 June 1890, to Arthur Benington Reckitt (secretary of the starch manufacturers Reckitt and Sons) and his wife, Helen Annie, née Thomas. After the family moved to St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, Eva developed an interest in socialist and progressive politics, and went on to study Philosophy at University College, London, in 1921, earning a BA degree with first-class honours in 1924.
In 1927, she was elected to the executive of the Labour Research Department. As one of the heirs to the Reckitt family business, formerly Reckitt & Colman and now part of Reckitt Benckiser, she supported the Communist Party of Great Britain from the 1920s to the 1950s. Her philanthropic efforts included being a shareholder for Plato Films Ltd, the body established in 1951 to provide the Left and in particular the Communist movement with films from the Socialist part of the world.
Reckitt's left-wing political affiliations put her at odds with her elder brother, the Anglo-Catholic writer and editor Maurice Benington Reckitt. She was described by one MI5 officer as "the Communist Party's milch-cow", and was under surveillance from 1923 to 1953.
She died, aged 86, on 24 September 1976 at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London. In her obituary in the journal History Workshop, to which she had lent her support, Raphael Samuel described her socialism as "a living thing, a matter of thought, criticism and conviction", and built upon "personal loyalties nourished by a lifetime's activity".
The public source identifies “Eva Collet Reckitt” as socialist bookseller. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Collet, Reckitt and Socialist.
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