Month: September 2010

Contr'un

William Batchelder Greene: more biographical details

September 22, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
“We are gratified (says the Transcript,) that the Commonwealth has secured the services of Mr. William B. Greene as Colonel of the Essex (14th) Regiment. Mr. Greene is a native of Essex County, and is forty-two years of age. He left West Point at the end of two years on account of ill health, but after regaining his strength, was selected to drill troops for many months upon Governor’s Island. He then procured active service as a Lieutenant in 7th U. S. Infantry in the Florida war. He distinguished himself in that severe service, having, most of the time, the […]
Contr'un

A glimpse of William B. Greene in 1854

September 22, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
“For Turkey.—A Paris correspondent of the New York Tribune says, that upon the proposal of a medical student, twenty young American students volunteered in ten minutes to aid the Turks with their unpracticed skill. The same writer states that Americans were leaving every day for the Turkish camp. Among those who had gone, were Col. Macgruder, of Mexican war celebrity; Mr. Quincy Shaw, of Boston, and the Rev. William B. Greene, late Unitarian clergyman at Brookfield.” [Boston Investigator, April 26, 1854]
Contr'un

“But he bored me beautifully…” (Edgar Chambless’ Roadtown)

September 18, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
[One of the next releases from Corvus Editions—or two of them, since there will be a pamphlet and an expanded hardcover edition—will be Edgar Chambless’ remarkable Roadtown, an early “linear city” proposal that mixes all the fascinating imagination and obsession that one could want from any political “utopia” with the sort of clear thinking and basic doing-of-the-homework that sometimes lifts these things into the realm of the possible. In anticipation of that release, which kicks off a series reprinting some of the more “usable” of this sort of immodest proposal, I’m going to post a few of the responses to […]
The Sex Question

André Léo, “Communism and Property” (1868)

September 13, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
Victoire Léodile Béra (1824–1900), aka André Léo, was a French novelist, socialist and feminist. She was married to Gregoire Champseix, a member of Pierre Leroux’s circle, and Benoit Malon, the “integral socialist,” but was herself every bit as formidable as either man. She participated in the Paris Commune, and delivered a rather fiery speech on “The Social War” in its aftermath, which raised hackles at the League of Peace and Freedom. And she was a delightfully clear, direct writer and speaker. It’s been a lot of fun to work on some translations of her work. COMMUNISM and PROPERTY The question […]