Editing Perry Anderson (section)

== Background and early life ==
Anderson was born in London on 11 September 1938.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Elliott |first1=Gregory |title=Perry Anderson: The Merciless Laboratory of History |year=1998 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-2966-4 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmeeV9POhgsC&pg=PA1 |language=en}}</ref> His father, James Carew O'Gorman Anderson (1893–1946), known as Séamas, an official with the [[Chinese Maritime Customs]], was born into an [[Anglo-Irish]] family, the younger son of Brigadier-General Sir Francis Anderson, of [[Ballydavid]], [[County Waterford]].<ref>Sir Bernard Burke, Peter Townsend, ''Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry'' (1969), p. 41</ref> He was descended from the [[Clan Anderson|Anderson family]] of Ardbrake, [[Drummuir|Bothriphnie]], Scotland, who had settled in Ireland in the early 18th century.<ref name=shaemas>Perry Anderson, [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n15/perry-anderson/a-belated-encounter A Belated Encounter] (Anderson's short biography of his father James)</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Journal of the Old Waterford Society 1994|url=http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/ejournals/101014/101014.pdf}} P. 7, para. 9.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/genealogicalhera00burkuoft|title=A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland|first1=Bernard|last1=Burke|first2=Arthur Charles|last2=Fox-Davies|date=29 August 1912|publisher=London : Harrison|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

Anderson's mother, Veronica Beatrice Mary Bigham, was English,<ref>[http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/2231/1/WollmannBenedictAnderson-Wollman-Spencer.pdf "The Influence of Benedict Anderson".]</</ref> the daughter of [[Trevor Bigham]], who was the [[Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis|Deputy Commissioner]] of the London [[Metropolitan Police]], 1914–1931. Anderson's grandmother, Frances, Lady Anderson, belonged to the [[Gaelic Ireland|Gaelic]] [[Gorman (surname)|Gorman]] [[Irish clans|clan]] of [[County Clare]] and was the daughter of the [[Irish Home Rule Movement|Irish Home Rule]] Member of Parliament Major [[Purcell O'Gorman]],<ref name="clarelibrary.ie">James Frost, [http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/frost/chap9_macgormans.htm "The History and Topography of the County of Clare –  Pedigree of MacGorman (O'Gorman)"], Clare County Library.</ref><ref>[http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/frost/chap9_ui_bracain.htm "The History and Topography of the County of Clare – Ui Bracain..."], Clare County Library.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=John O'Hart, Irish Pedigree's, or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation|year=1892 |publisher=Dublin, J. Duffy and Co.; New York, Benziger Brothers |url=https://archive.org/details/irishpedigreesor_01ohar }}</ref> himself the son of Nicholas Purcell O'Gorman who had been involved with the [[Irish republicanism|Republican]] [[Society of United Irishmen]] during the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|1798 Rebellion]], later becoming Secretary of the [[Catholic Association]] in the 1820s.<ref name="clarelibrary.ie"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/s3unitedirishmen00madduoft|title=The United Irishmen, their lives and times. With several additional memoirs, and authentic documents, heretofore unpublished; the whole matter newly arranged and revised. 2d series|first=Richard Robert|last=Madden|date=29 August 1858|publisher=Dublin, J. Duffy|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>Kieran Sheedy, [http://www.irelandmidwest.com/clare/history/historyessays.htm "The United Irishmen of County Clare"], County Clare – Historical Essays.</ref> Anderson's father had previously been married to the novelist [[Stella Benson]], and it was after her death in 1933 that he married again.<ref name=shaemas/>

Anderson was educated at [[Eton College|Eton]] and [[Worcester College, Oxford]], where he took his first degree.<ref name="Elliott p. 1">Gregory Elliott (1998), [https://books.google.com/books?id=TmeeV9POhgsC Perry Anderson: The Merciless Laboratory of History, University of Minnesota Press], p. 1.</ref> Early in his life, Anderson made a brief foray into [[rock criticism]], writing under the pseudonym Richard Merton.<ref>{{cite book|page=60|quote=Prudence was displayed in the use of a pseudonym for two Andersonian forays onto the terrain of rock music, under the signature of Richard Merton, who opted for the Stones rather than the Beatles, and the Beach Boys rather than Bob Dylan.|title=Perry Anderson: The Merciless Laboratory of History|last=Elliott|first=Gregory|year=1998|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=0816629668}}</ref>