The Sex Question

In the writings of the 19th and early 20th century, the questions we associate with feminism were addressed under a variety of labels, one of the most economical of which was “the sex question,” which referred, in practice, to a wide range of question concerning sex, gender, sexuality, etc. The texts collected here cover a wide range of “women’s issues.” The current collection includes material previously contained in the following archives: La Frondeuse (Black and Red Feminist History), Anarchy and the Sex Question and A Beautiful Nihilist.

The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “A Correction” (1902)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
A Correction. Dear Lillian: Lucifer makes me say: “If it shall happen that Society condemns anything which my conscience doesn’t approve, I shall not be scared from my position by being told that Society is NOT on my side.” It should read “that Society is on my side.” Every radical claims to be brave enough to stand against society; what I was claiming was to stand with it when it went my way. Please make correction in Lucifer. Voltairine de Cleyre. Voltairine de Cleyre, “A Correction,” Lucifer the Light-Bearer, Third Series, 6 no. 30 (August 7, E. M. 302 (C. […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Mechanics and Vacant Land” (1890)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Mechanics and Vacant Land.—While my views in general accord with those of the Twentieth Century editors, I cannot forbear to offer a criticism upon Mr. M’Cready’s recent advice to the unemployed of San Francisco. In your issue of March 20 he says: “Do you know I think if those 25,000 men. . . would justly, quietly and persistently assert their right to apply their labor to 25,000 patches of vacant land, they would give the constituted authorities a problem that wouldn’t be solved in a hurry.” Now, while it is true that the land monopoly is the root monopoly, it […]
The Sex Question

Jay Fox, “Voltairine de Cleyre” (1923)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. (Report of Speech at Voltairine de Cleyre Memorial Meeting.) Coming to this meeting I rode with a green conductor, a young man who was probably making his lirst trip, and I was struck by his awkwardness in performing apparently so simple a task and by his efforts to conceal the fact of his amateurishness. He fumbled the change, got the transfers mixed, forgot to pull the bell—and all the time he chewed gum and tried to act like a veteran. He tried to deceive us and put on a bold front in spite of all the evidence […]
The Sex Question

Leonard D. Abbott, “A Priestess of Pity and of Vengeance” (1912)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
A PRIESTESS OF PITY AND OF VENGEANCE ON June 19 Voltairine de Cleyre died in Chicago. The daily papers in most cases did not even record the fact. The news reached the radical public through the medium of her friends and through memorial meetings held in Chicago and New York. Very few realize even yet that one of the most remarkable characters of our time has passed on. Her reputation, I venture to predict, will last for centuries. She was an Anarchist, “a priestess of pity and of vengeance,” as W. T. Stead once called Louise Michel. In the sad […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “A Memorial Oration” (1913)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
A Memorial Oration [November 11, 1901] Let me begin with a confession. I make it sorrowfully and with self-disgust; but in the presence of great sacrifice we learn humility, and if my comrades could give their lives for their belief, why let me give my pride. Yet I would not give it, for personal utterance is of trifling importance, were it not that I think at this particular season, it will encourage those of our sympathizers whom the recent outburst of Savagery may have disheartened, and perhaps lead some who are standing where I once stood to do as I […]
The Sex Question

Joseph Kucera , “Voltairine de Cleyre” (1913)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Voltairine de Cleyre (A Character Sketch) To meet an Intellectual face to face; to shake hands with the individual who champions our unpopular cause in poems, in prose and from the platform; to come in physical contact, through this handshake, with a person whom I admire from the distance; to see her really alive, and to see if she really corresponds with the picture I painted of her in my mind—that was the wish of many an Anarchist in regard to Voltairine de Cleyre. But as a rule he was disappointed when he met her. Disappointed, because in her presence […]
obituaries and funeral orations

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Dyer D. Lum” (1893)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
DYER D. LUM. BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. DYER D. LUM, poet, philosopher and revolutionist, whose portrait appears as the frontispiece of this number of the Magazine, was born at Geneva, N. Y., February I5, 1839. In these days when the cry of “foreigner” is hurled at every one who dares to form a conception of society without government, it is perhaps worth while to trace the descent of a man so prominent in the extreme radical movement. In the year 1732 Samuel Lum came to this country from Scotland. Daniel Dyer Lum, or, as he afterwards wrote it, Dyer Daniel, […]
obituaries and funeral orations

Voltairine de Cleyre, “In Hora Mortis Nostrae” (1893)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
“IN HORA MORTIS NOSTRAE.” ON Wednesday, March 15th, Mrs. Ellen Harker died at Reading, Penna; and with the going out of her breath one of the stanchest and most long-tried friends of liberty of thought and speech went out into the great unknown. Philadelphia Liberals, to whom hers was a familiar figure for so many years, will feel that they have lost one of their central lights, have parted with one of those dear grandmothers of the movement whose white hair and kind smile denied the oft-repeated accusation that there is no veneration or reverence in the worshippers of liberty. […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Economics of Dyer D. Lum” (1893)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
If Dyer D. Lum were living I doubt whether the articles of Mr. Black, recently copied by the Twentieth Century from the “Australian Workman,” would elicit anything further from him than a hearty laugh. Mr. Lum had a very keen appreciation of the ludicrous and the richness of being classed in company with Victor Yarros as a Communist would have touched what he called his “Sense of ticklety” sufficiently to have compensated him for being subjected to the treatment of such a reviewer. He can, indeed, well afford to be accounted as “lacking in understanding” by this “turgid and tangled” […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Commune is Risen” (1912)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE COMMUNE IS RISEN By VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. “They say ‘She is dead; the Commune is dead’; That ‘If she were living her earthquake tread Would scatter the honeyless hornets’ hive.’ I am not dead, nor yet asleep; Nor tardy, though my steps seem slow; Nor feeble from the centuries’ sweep; Nor cold, though chill the north winds blow. My legions muster in all lands, From field, from factory, from mine, The workers of the world join hands Across the centuries and brine.” NEVER since those lines were sung by the great unknown poet, whose heart shone red through his […]