Year: 2011

Contr'un

The return of “From the Libertarian Library”

October 30, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
As a lot of my day-to-day focus shifts back to the digital archiving projects, it makes sense to put some old tools back into use. By the beginning of the new year, I should have Travelling in Liberty, or a reboot thereof, back in action, and today I’m relaunching From the Libertarian Library as a spot to highlight the archival projects, display long texts, etc., freeing this blog up as a more focused space for writing about mutualism. Between now and the end of December, I’ll be gradually making the shift back to using multiple blogs for various tasks. The […]
Contr'un

Steven T. Byington, “On Interference with the Environment”

October 30, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
ON INTERFERENCE WITH THE ENVIRONMENT.  By STEVEN T. BYINGTON. I.—THE PRESUPPOSITIONS I START FROM. I WANT to start a discussion which may be of some length, especially if I get replies from those who disagree with me, as I hope I may, and I think it will pay if first I lay down, like Euclid, a few of the axioms and postulates with which I begin. I observe that men universally hold that certain types of action are to be approved and certain others are to be disapproved. They differ as to what actions should be put in either class: […]
Contr'un

Eliphalet Kimball for President! in 1852

October 30, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
Eliphalet Kimball remains one of my favorite figures in the American anarchist tradition, in part because he remains so unknown, popping up here and there in the 19th century radical press to make the most amazing pronouncements and demands, but somehow managing to go almost completely unremarked in the scholarly literature. I first discovered Kimball’s anarchist writings in the Boston Investigator and Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly more than four years ago, and posted three of his essays: “Law, Commerce, and Religion,” “Civilization—Anarchy” and “Suggestions.” Recently, I was able to pick up an original copy of his one book, Thoughts on […]
Contr'un

Archive upgrades, IV

October 29, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
The week was full of the right kinds of interruptions: A couple of research requests I had out bore fruit, and gave me plenty of productive distractions from the ongoing archive clean-up. Barry Pateman, of Kate Sharpley Library, hooked me up with a file of old card catalog data for Mother Earth, which I’ve started to transcribe and integrate into the archive. I got a chance to talk through some difficult points of the “Essence of Mutualism” article that I’ve been working on with a knowledgeable drinking buddy. And a couple more Benjamin Tucker-related sources turned out to be a […]
Contr'un

Benjamin R. Tucker in Printers’ Ink, 1892

October 25, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s another letter from Benjamin R. Tucker relating to the publishing trade, which refers to his experiences publishing the Weekly Bulletin of Newspaper and Periodical Literature, one of three non-political papers he published—the others were The Transatlantic and the elusive Five Stories a Week—which haven’t received much attention. HAS HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE.  Benj. R, Tucker, Publisher and Bookseller, 224 Tremont St., Boston, Jan. 31, 189-2. } Geo. P. Rowell & Co., Publishers of Printers’ Ink: I am sorry that you are made a victim of official stupidity at Washington, and glad that you are disposed to use your wide […]
anarchist individualism

E. Armand, “Little Manual of the Individualist Anarchist” (1911)

October 23, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] My translation of E. Armand’s “Mini-Manual” was a fairly early effort, and I’ve been meaning to get a revised translation posted for some time now. I originally tackled the sections that had not been published by Larry Gambone much more out of curiosity than deep interest. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve done a number of translations of Armand’s work without quite convincing myself of his importance. But, having finally dipped into his Individualist Anarchist Initiation, and finding it extremely interesting, I decided it was time to take a few hours to work over the “Mini-Manual.” There are a couple of […]
Contr'un

The Gilded Edge of Hell – a tale by Voltairine de Cleyre

October 23, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE GILDED EDGE OF HELL Mr. Editor:–The broad roll of the Delaware flashed back a white water-glisten at the full moon. Fifteen or twenty vessels spread their white wings to the slow breeze, or sent the black vomit from their whistling throats upward to the night sky. Splash, splash! fell the water from the sides of the “John A. Warner” as she cut the flowing current, that ran like long, waving hair, away from the white line in her wake. Upon her decks two thoughtful women gazed at the dark banks, lifted their eyes to the soft sky and occasionally […]
Contr'un

Archive upgrades, III

October 22, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Libertarian Labyrinth clean-up advances, step by step: I’ve made it through the “A”s in a roughly linear fashion—with lots of side trips to deal with all the old problems, new listings and such that naturally appear. And I’ve been simultaneously digging out and organizing my paper files, which can be a little daunting, since my print-outs of Bolton Hall articles (mostly one-page parables) amount to a 5” stack all by themselves. Since I’m taking the time to verify citations with the original sources where I can, it’s been an opportunity to rapidly refresh my memory about a lot of […]
Contr'un

Two new publications of interest

October 21, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
At long last, Crispin Sartwell’s Josiah Warren anthology, “The Practical Anarchist,” has been published by Fordham University Press. It’s a very nice collection, the sort of thing that will give readers insight into both Warren’s key ideas and the breadth of his contributions. I got to play research assistant for the project for awhile, and a number of my favorite finds from that period made the cut for inclusion. This is a hardcover volume, at a hardcover price, but it is a well-designed, well-bound book that fills a big gap in the literature. Have your library grab it if you […]
Contr'un

Archive upgrades, II

October 20, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
A thousand is a lot, when it is a thousand articles that have to be checked for complete citations, typos, and formatting, and assigned to enough categories and index pages to be findable. The work on cleaning up and standardizing the Libertarian Labyrinth archive has already been both a lot of work and a lot of fun. As I’ve mentioned before, much of my accumulation of texts has been done at times when there was little leisure, or too much distraction, to take as much time with them as I would have liked. So while I’ve been doing a lot […]