Year: 2017

The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Events are the True Schoolmasters” (1907)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
I count it as one of the best fortunes of my life that in my early days as an anarchist it was my privilege to know Dyer D. Lum. These thirteen years he is in his grave, and yet whenever editors and contributors of anarchist journals fall to denouncing the actions of the unwise, the ebullitions of the mass, I hear his voice, as yesterday, saying in his short, brusque way: “Events are the true schoolmasters.” There was in his day, as there is now, a certain percentage of propagandists who think that they possess the truth, the whole truth, […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Review—The Curse of Race Prejudice” (1906)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
REVIEWS—THE CURSE OF RACE PREJUDICE. By Voltairine De Cleyre. LIKE all the writings of Jas. F. Morton, his “Curse of Race Prejudice” is conceived in a spirit of fairness—fair even to laboriousness at times. One might occasionally wish for a little more ginger to spice it! For if ever warmth was justified, it surely is when one is characterizing the unspeakable acts of Negrophobiacs and Jew torturers. Nevertheless the average reader will undoubtedly in the end be more deeply impressed by Morton’s quiet and even speech than by the gall that bites and the vinegar that eats. The substance of […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, et al, “James’s Vindication of Anarchism” (1906)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
JAMES’S VINDICATION OF ANARCHISM. AN APPEAL. Comrades and Friends:— It has been the earnest desire of many of the former readers of Free Society to see the work entitled, “Vindication of Anarchism,” by C. L. James, issued in book form. The comrades of Philadelphia, whose original suggestion was in a measure the occasion which called forth the work, have steadily kept this purpose in view ever since its serial appearance in Free Society, regarding it as one of the serious contributions to a fundamental literature of Anarchism. The creation of such a literature is, in our opinion, the most definite […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “An Open Letter to Maxim Gorky” (1906)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
AN OPEN LETTER. Philadelphia, Pa., Aug., 1906. Maxim Gorky, New York City. My right to address you is that I have felt the best that your soul has felt, and loved you for your voice that cried out of the deeps; and that not less have I felt the shame and degradation of your conduct as a weak and shambling creeper, since you have been in America. Hedged about like the Russian Czar by those that have used you and fooled you; seeker for the gifts of those who have spit in your face; insulter of those to whom you […]
fiction

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Triumph of Youth” (1906)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Triumph of Youth THE afternoon blazed and glittered along the motionless tree-tops and down into the yellow dust of the road. Under the shadows of the trees, among the powdered grass and bushes, sat a woman and a man. The man was young and handsome in a way, with a lean eager face and burning eyes, a forehead in the old poetic mould crowned by loose dark waves of hair; his chin was long, his lips parted devouringly and his glances seemed to eat his companion’s face. It was not a pretty face, not even ordinarily good looking,—sallow, not […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Kristofer Hansteen” (1906)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
“OF the earth, unearthly—” The sentence remained unfinished as I had written it two years and a half ago when Disease laid its hand on me, and all my MSS. ended in a dash. It was a description of Kristofer Hansteen, an explanation of his work in Norway. And now that I am ready to pick up the thread of life again, I read that he is dead—of the earth no more, he who hardly ever belonged to it. At this moment the most insistent memory I have of that delicate, half-aërial personality are the words: “When the doctors told […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Making of an Anarchist” (1903)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Miss de Cleyre is one of the most active propagandists of anarchy in the United States and Europe, and the intimate friend of leading anarchists here and abroad. To those intimately acquainted with the spread of the socialist, communist and anarchist idea, it will appeal as a remarkably candid sketch of one representative career, and an exposition, equally frank, of the principle of one great branch of the anarchist order. To those uninformed on the general subject, it will present many surprises—not the least of them being the revelation of character on the part of the writer herself.—Editor.] Here was […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Owing to a misunderstanding…” (1895)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Owning to a misunderstanding of the publishers my name has been prematurely announced as Editor of The Rebel. Circumstances do not at present permit me to assume the responsibilities of that position, and the credit of the literary part of the undertaking is due solely to comrade Mowbray. If at some future time the duties fall to me, announcement will be made to that effect. Voltairine de Cleyre. Voltairine de Cleyre, “[Note: “Owing to a misunderstanding…”], The Rebel 1, no. 1 (September 20, 1895): 7.
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Past and Future of the Ladies’ Liberal League” (1895-96)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE PAST AND FUTURE of the LADIES’ LIBERAL LEAGUE. By Voltairine de Cleyre I have assumed a serious and severe office that of historian and prophet. But, pardon me, I intend to be neither serious nor severe; for this is an occasion rather for exchanging greetings and putting ourselves in good humor than being serious, and my talk will be somewhat governed thereby. Our history is short, but, to borrow a ponderous phrase of Renan’s “of interest to the philosophic mind.” At last it ought to be; if it is not so much the worse for the philosophic mind. We […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Some Nihilists I Have Met” (1893)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Some Nihilists I Have Met The word nihilist is so generally associated with darkness, secrecy, dynamite, assassination and blood, that had someone whispered five minutes before the encounter, “You are about to meet a Russian nihilist,” I should, no doubt, have hastily retreated to the shelter of law-abiding domiciles, far from the dirty, tortuous, downtown quarter, where, amidst a labyrinth of alleys and deceitful little streets that mockingly led against walls, and then turned back into one another, I found myself one snowy afternoon, picking my way somewhat disgustedly with no very clear idea concerning my exact whereabouts. One thing, […]