fiction
fiction
equitable commerce
Sidney H. Morse, “Liberty and Wealth” (1882)
“Well,” he said, the smile still lingering in the corners of his mouth, “we are in one sense, my friend, a poverty-stricken people. We haven’t any institutions to speak of. All we can boast are certain outgrowths of our needs, which, for the most part, have taken care of themselves. We have, perhaps, an unwritten law, or general understanding, though no one to my knowledge has tried to state it. We all seem to know it when we meet it, and, as yet, have had no dispute about it. It may be said in a general way, however, as a matter of observation, that we are believers in liberty, in justice, in equality, in fraternity, in peace, progress, and in a state of happiness here on earth for one and all. What we mean by all this defines itself as we go along. It is a practical, working belief, we have. When we find an idea won’t work, we don’t decide against it; we let it rest; perhaps, later on, it will work all right. I don’t know as there is much more to say.”
Catechisms and Dialogues
Vicente Carreras, “Acraciápolis” (1902)
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] This translation from Spanish has been sitting, complete except for a last few lines, for quite some time now, probably because I had forgotten quite how much of it I had finished (undoubtedly late one night, while I should have been digging up more Max Nettlau articles from La Revista Blanca.) It was an obvious, appealing choice for translation—so obvious, in fact, that I find Jesse Cohn has also included a translation in his essay, “Escape From Cretinolândia: Strategies of Displacement in Anarchist Fiction.” Anyway, here is my translation of a short interesting, anarchist utopian […]
fiction
Lizzie M. Holmes, “To Poverty” (1902)
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] To Poverty. Poverty! Miserable curse of a plenteous earth, what horrors are conjured at your name! Shameful shadow falling like a pall over the bright glow civilization would boastfully send forth, you darken every dream of beauty and purity that mortal dares to dwell upon! You drive him to despair, you hound him to the prison door, you call forth the evil within to fight your encroachments, and you crush to earth his aspirations, his genius. Needless, hideous phantom that you are—thing created, not of nature but of men—what mystical words […]
fiction
Mary Hansen, “A Vision of Sacrifice” (1907)
[two_third] A VISION OF SACRIFICE. We selected the tallest of the bluffs, and climbed to its edge to view the sunrise. The air about us was thick and moist, the gaunt old trees stood out like ragged giants, while the bluff itself on which we stood seemed but one of the many vapouring clouds which floated about its edge. Suddenly from the east there swept upon us a white light, and we sprang to our feet, all but one, who, exhausted by the long climb, lay stretched full length on the trunk of a fallen tree. The light swept up […]
fiction
Henry Seymour, “The Monomaniacs” (1895)
[ezcol_2third] THE MONOMANIACS: A FABLE IN FINANCE. Once upon a time there lived in the moon a race of people who subsisted principally by eating one another. In course of time their numbers became so diminished that they viewed with alarm the approaching extinction of their species. But the first law of nature sufficiently asserted itself to induce them to relinquish cannibalism except as a luxury, and by degrees they went to fishing, to pasturage and husbandry, ultimately developing a rude system of commodity production. By and by they found hand-labor to be excessively tiresome, and although they worked from […]
fiction
Jean Grave, “Free-Land” (1908)
[ezcol_2third] FREE-LAND (The Pioneers) by Jean Grave 1908 [TRANSLATION IN PROGRESS] PREFACE By the translator of the Spanish edition. Tasked with translating this book for the collection of readings for the “Modern School” of Barcelona, I first experienced, on reading it, a feeling of pleasant melancholy. The arbitrary and brutal act, undertaken in the name of social defense and in order to decapitate a revolutionary party, that casts a load of deportees into the steerage of the Arethusa — which every reader of bourgeois judgment will take for an act of rabble-rousing exaggeration, — reminded me of the bombing at […]
fiction
Clement M. Hammond, “Then and Now” (1884)
THEN AND NOW: OR, THE TRAVELS THROUGH TIME OF MISS JOSEPHINE D’AUJOURD’HUI AS TOLD BY HERSELF. [Written by Clement M. Hammond] ____________ “Fortunatus had a Wishing Hat, which when he put on, and wished himself Anywhere, behold he was There. By this means had Fortunatus triumphed over Space, he had annihilated Space; for him there was no Where, but all was Here. Were a Hatter to establish himself in the Wahngasse of Weissnichtwo, and make felts of this sort for all mankind, what a world we should have of it! Still stranger, should, on the opposite side of the […]
fiction
Albert Libertad, “The Legend of Christmas” (1899)
Once upon a time, a long time ago, around the year 1900, there was a big heap of rocks and mud that the natives at that time called Paris. It was the capital of a country favored with a temperate climate where cereals, vineyards, and the most beautiful fruits grew in abundance. Approaching these heaps of stone, overcoming the pestilential odors given off by them, one saw that it was crossed by roads of all sorts: some wide, packed with fine houses, and others narrow, with, on each side, houses with the look of mousetraps, arranged in tight rows.
fiction
L. M. S., “A Story of a Giant” (1887)
A STORY OF A GIANT. A Parable Not Laid Down in the Gospels, but Which Will Bear Careful Reflection. Is a Straight-Jacket the Best Remedy for the Contortions and Writhings of the Blind Samson of Modern Industry? Once upon a tine there lived a great, strong, patient giant who faithfully served some young princes of the realm. The princes ordered him about, sent him out on all sorts of perilous errands, rode upon his shoulders, and loaded him with burdens to carry, as though he were a pack-horse. They knew he was so strong that he could have annihilated them […]