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Access to “Liberty”

December 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

Considering the importance of Liberty, both as the primary journal of the individualist anarchist tradition and as an important component of the larger debates about social issues in its time, it is a bit surprising how difficult it is to access. For those with access to a university or other large library, Proquest’s APS Online database includes most of the run. John Zube’s microfiche edition is more complete, costs $27, and includes the either issues of Libertas (and you can order the Radical Review from John as well.) I tend to use both, relying primarily on Zube’s edition for completeness, […]

Travelling through “Liberty”

December 19, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

Between 1891 and 1908, Benjamin R. Tucker’s published 403 issues of Liberty, almost certainly the most important individualist anarchist publication in English, and probably in any language. Tucker was a, perhaps the, key player in the second phase of individualist anarchism in the United States. He both continued and greatly modified the earlier mutualist projects of William Batchelder Greene and Josiah Warren. By the end of his career he had come to embrace a Stirneresque egois—apparently worlds away from the Saint-Simon-influenced Christian mutualism of Greene’s early work or the Owenite origins of Warren’s. Questions of continuity and development within the […]

Google Books “Found Art”

December 18, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

While using Google Books, I’ve been collecting particularly nice examples of either 1) pages scanned so badly that they become interesting as “found art” in their own right, or 2) images of non-book items, including hands, scanned with the books. There are some very peculiar pages tucked in amongst everything else there. I’m hoping to get a set of images together in the near future for a new online gallery project. If you happen to run across anything that seems likely, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

The new Libertatia Lab Reports

December 18, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’m guessing very few people will even notice, but my old “general” blog, Libertatia Lab Reports, has made its final journey to the bit-bucket. I used it very little, and not particularly effectively. If you were one of the three or four people who read the old Reports blog, or you want to start keeping tabs on my more general thoughts, my MySpace blog, The Alphabet Conspiracy, is the place to go. It’s everything the other should have been, but never was. There will, however, be more Libertatia Lab Reports. I’m launching a new print zine, starting sometime in January. […]

Google Books “Found Art”

December 18, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

While using Google Books, I’ve been collecting particularly nice examples of either 1) pages scanned so badly that they become interesting as “found art” in their own right, or 2) images of non-book items, including hands, scanned with the books. There are some very peculiar pages tucked in amongst everything else there. I’m hoping to get a set of images together in the near future for a new online gallery project. If you happen to run across anything that seems likely, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

J. K. Ingalls’ patents

December 16, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

The patent search at Google is easier to navigate than the equivalent at the U.S. Patent Office, although the images at the latter are a bit better. Both sites are of potential interest, as a large number of innovators in the realms of politics and economics were also inventors. From my first search, here’s 38 pages of patents, all apparently the work of Joshua King Ingalls. I’ve got patents by Warren, Weitling and Westrup that I’m looking through as well.

“A Lance for Anarchy,” Voltairine de Cleyre

December 16, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

Voltairine de Cleyre was involved in the debates in The Open Court in the 1890s, and also published a number of poems in that journal. “A Lance for Anarchy,” which appeared in the issue of Sept. 24, 1891, was a response to an article by editor Paul Carus. A LANCE FOR ANARCHYBY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. THE perusal of Dr. Carus’s article, “Freethought: Its Truth and its Error” in The Open Court of Aug. 6th, has impelled me to a parallel line of thought concerning a doctrine, a principle, less understood, more misinterpreted, both by enemies and followers, than even that […]

Farming in the Year 2000, A. D. (Looking Backward)

December 15, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

Here’s yet another short sequel to Bellamy’s novel, by Edward Berwick. It appeared in the June 1890 issue of the Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, to which Berwick submitted a number or articles. His work also appeared in The Outlook and The Arena. FARMING IN THE YEAR 2000. A. D. With nerves unstrung by that horrent nightmare, which had replunged me into the cruel vortex of nineteenth century antagonism and brutality, I cast around for some method of restoring my usual equanimity. An excursion into the country would, it appeared to me, serve the double purpose of acting as […]

A Journalist’s Confession (Looking Backward)

December 12, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

In this exchange from The Open Court (April 10 and May 1, 1890) Dyer D. Lum and Rabbi Solomon Schindler square off over Edward Bellamy’s ideas in a set of sequels to Looking Backward. Schindler was a Boston radical, a proponent of Bellamyite Nationalism, and a regular contributor to The Arena. Dyer was a regular contributor to Liberty and The Index. Their exchange is a nice window into the basic conflict between the state socialists and anarchists at the turn of the centry. A JOURNALIST’S CONFESSION. BOSTON, A. D., 2001.[COMMUNICATED THROUGH DYER D LUM.] You will be surprised, my dear […]

Deacon Van Winkle’s Dream (Looking Backward)

December 12, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’m in the midst of a Sequels of Looking Backward marathon, working my way through as many of the early responses to Edward Bellamy’s novel as I can get my hands on. In the process of tracking these down, I’ve come across a couple of short pieces that are worth a look. “Deacon Van Winkle’s Dream,” by George H. Hubbard, is a sharp Christian response to Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, centered on Thanksgiving Day. The author appears to be the George Henry Hubbard (1857-) who wrote The Teaching of Jesus in Parables, and who was a persistent, relatively conservative voice […]