Blog - Page 214 of 286 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Tucker on “fake” translations

October 19, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

Here’s a bit of fun from the 1891 volume of The Bookseller and Newsman, where Benjamin R. Tucker got very actively involved in the debate about translations of Emile Zola’s “Money.” It’s classic Tucker. The American Edition of “Money.” _____ WHAT THE PUBLISHERS SAY OF IT. The editorial notice of The Nile Publishing Company’s edition of “Money,” by Emile Zola, in the March Newsman, was the cause of much comment in trade circles. The following correspondence from the publishers of this book will interest The Newsman readers and throw much light on the matter of translating and publishing foreign works: […]

Josiah Warren’s Last Letter (from The Index)

October 2, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

JOSIAH WARREN’S LAST LETTER [As our readers have been already informed, Mr. Josiah Warren, the author of True Civilization and other unpretentious little works on social reform, died In Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the fourteenth of April, at the age of seventy-five years. Although he was confined to his chamber during most of the winter, his mind was as vigorous as ever; and he took great interest in the articles on his “cost principle” which have been published from time to time in The Index. On the eleventh of April, he wrote the first of the following papers; but, not being […]