Year: 2017

fiction

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The White Room” (1896)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
It was an artist’s masterpiece. He had wrought it all with his own hands, after his idea, which grew as he wrought. It was not square nor long nor round, nor any regular shape, such as we are used to thinking of rooms; it was wider here and narrower there, and had strange turns and niches and carvings and arches; and in all these there were bits of statuary, or tiny fountains, or flowers, or curious sea things gathered from many shores, shells and corals and ocean feathers, picked up years apart. The light came from above as all light […]
obituaries and funeral orations

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Katherine Karg Harker—Obituary” (1896)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
MRS. KATHERINE KARG HARKER.—OBITUARY.[note]An address delivered at the funeral of Mrs. Harker and at the grave. Mrs. Harker, who died at the age of seventy years, had been an Atheist for sixty years, and a member of the Philadelphia Liberal Club for the last twenty-five years.[/note] BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. IN the presence of those solemnly closed eyes, these pulseless hands, these voiceless lips I come to speak, as someday I wish that one will speak for me, telling the truth of life and death, The trust of the dead is very sacred. There is but one thing equally so—and […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Hopelessly Fallen” (1902)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Hopelessly Fallen I generally like what Kate Austin says and always admire the spirited way she says it; but I feel move to write a word of disagreement with her and others concerning this attitude towards “fallen women.” I do not know just what class of persons are included in that category; but from K. A.’s general blunt, straightforward, non-equivocating nature, and her strong determination to apply her faith under all circumstances, I suppose she means all, beginning with the young girl who has once deviated from the rigid line of conventional morality, and been found out, to the […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Hopelessly Fallen” (1902)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Hopelessly Fallen I generally like what Kate Austin says and always admire the spirited way she says it; but I feel move to write a word of disagreement with her and others concerning this attitude towards “fallen women.” I do not know just what class of persons are included in that category; but from K. A.’s general blunt, straightforward, non-equivocating nature, and her strong determination to apply her faith under all circumstances, I suppose she means all, beginning with the young girl who has once deviated from the rigid line of conventional morality, and been found out, to the […]
The Sex Question

Francisco Ferrer, “L’École Rénovée” (1909; Voltairine de Cleyre, tr.)

July 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
L’École Rénovée By Francisco Ferrer. Literal translation of an article written by Francisco Ferrer for the L’Ecole Renovee, the Paris review published in the interests of Modern Education. TO those who wish to renovate the education of children two methods are open: To work for the transformation of the school by studying the child, so as to prove scientifically that the present organization of education is defective and to bring about progressive modification; or, to found new schools in which shall be directly applied those principles corresponding directly to the ideal of society and of its units, as held by […]
fiction

Liebin, “Little Albert’s Punishment” (1907; Voltairine de Cleyre, tr.)

July 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Links:  Voltairine de Cleyre [main page] LITTLE ALBERT’S PUNISHMENT (Translated from the Jewish of Liebin.) ALBERT is nine years old. He is little, thin, and pale. There was no place for him in school, so he has to stay at home. Very likely the hand of an overseeing Providence is in that, since Albert’s being at home has been of much use. Albert’s father is a button-hole maker, but he will soon have forgotten all about his trade, for he has been out of a job for a long, long time. Day in and day out he goes about looking […]
The Sex Question

L. I. Peretz, “Hope and Fear” (1906; Voltairine de Cleyre, tr.)

July 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
HOPE AND FEAR.* (Translated from the Jewish of L. I. Peretz.) . . . My heart is with you. My eye does not get weary looking at your flaming banner; my ear does not get tired listening to your powerful song . . . My heart is with you; man’s hunger must be appeased, and he must have light; he must be free, and he must be his own master, master over himself and his work. And when you snap at the fist which is trying to strangle you, your voice, and your ardent protest, preventing you from being heard […]
The Sex Question

“Buddhism,” translated by Voltairine de Cleyre (1903)

July 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Buddhism. A few weeks before Voltairine de Cleyre was struck down in the street by the bullets from Herman Helscher’s revolver, she read in one of her French journals the story of a Chinaman who was shot by a Russian soldier in the streets of a Manchurian village. This story made a profound impression on the young woman’s mind. “That Chinaman was an anarchist and did not know it,” she said to her friends. “His sentiments, his ideas, are mine. I will translate the story for the benefit of my friends.” And she translated, but scarcely had her work been […]
fiction

Voltairine de Cleyre, “She Died for Me” (1895)

July 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE Doctor was a lean dark man, with sad eyes. They looked up, wide and singularly deep, as his visitor said: “I don’t understand you half-way freethinkers in the least. I am out and out. I have no patience with wishy-washiness. I just tell them straight that I haven’t any use for their musty old frauds, nor their whole outfit of priests, that live by them. But you-you know religion is all superstition, yet you go on talking to those people as if you accepted their belief in God and immortality and the vicarious atonement and the whole programme! “ […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “American Progress” (1891)

July 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
IN a very able article in the October Monist, Mr. T. R. Preston gives a bird’s-eye view of American Politics, for the purpose, it would appear of pointing out the coincidence of American political development with the more general theory of Evolution. This article commands admiration for its evident spirit of fairness, and desire to bring out the truth concerning the purpose of the rise, growth, and decay of political parties. Nevertheless he has arrived at certain conclusions which, in my opinion, are incorrect, and should not pass without criticism. If I rightly apprehend the general tenor and particularly the […]