Jean Grave Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Liberty through Education (1898)

April 9, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

LA LIBERTÉ Par L’ENSEIGNEMENT (L’ÉCOLE LIBERTAIRE) [Temps Nouveaux, 1898] En matière d’éducation et d’enseignement, l’Autorité a pour effet d’accaparer l’homme chez l’enfant, au moment où son jugement est sans force, sa mémoire vide, son imagination naïve et sans défiance. Pour déprimer la, raison au détriment de la liberté, elle s’est emparée de l’intelligence et de la volonté pour les enchaîner, insensiblement et par une longue habitude, de préjugés, de scrupules et d’entraves sans nombre. L’État, après l’Église, comprenant fort bien que l’homme se ressent toute sa vie de l’influence subie durant son passage à l’école, s’est arrogé le droit d’étendre […]

Jean Grave, “Society on the Morrow of the Revolution” (1889)

February 26, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] One of the projects I’ve been pursing for a long time now is the collection of various serialized book- or pamphlet-length works which have remained largely unknown in the pages of fairly well-known anarchist periodicals. This work by Jean Grave is one that I started to transcribe quite a number of years ago, after receiving page-scans from a friend, but a variety of factors kept me from completing the work. Readers will find that the third chapter—which probably appeared in the February, 1890 issue of Freedom—is missing, simply because it was missing in the set […]

Jean Grave, “Moribund Society and Anarchy” (1893)

February 24, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] MORIBUND SOCIETY AND ANARCHY TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF JEAN GRAVE BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE [With a Preface from the French edition by Octave Mirbeau] [English translation published 1899] —– PREFACE. “Moribund Society and Anarchy” first appeared in France about a decade since, published by P. V. Stock, printer of numerous works pertaining to Anarchy. The conscience (?) of the French army, which the Dreyfus affair has since revealed in all its delicate scrupulosity, was immediately incensed by the chapter entitled “Militarism,” and the author was speedily arrested, tried, and sentenced […]

Jean Grave, “Free-Land” (1908)

February 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[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 […]

Jean Grave, “The Adventures of Nono” (1901) – Full translation

January 1, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve completed a working translation of Jean Grave’s “The Adventures of Nono,” a children’s book written for the Ferrer Schools. It’s a strange and fascinating novel, with a style and vocabularly not quite appropriate in some places for most children, but with sections that seem well wrought for that purpose. I’m going to have to think about this one a bit before I make final decisions about those questions of style and vocabulary in the revision stage, but for now I think this is a pretty good representation of Grave’s work. Click the image in the sidebar for a pdf […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter XI

December 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter X] –> XI THE AFTERMATH OF A FIRST MISTAKE On returning to Autonomie, took little part in the conversation. He pondered what he had just seen. A gamin of Paris, a child of workers for whom the greatest journey they could permit themselves was a walk in the woods of Clamart or Meudon, — it was an event when they could go as far as those of Verrières — he knew the sea only from the enthusiastic descriptions that he had found in books. Indeed, of mountains he only know […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter X

October 29, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter IX] X THE ENCOUNTER The group was returning very slowly, without hurrying, when Nono saw a splendid death’s-head hawkmoth. He immediately decided to catch it. But when he tried to seize it, the insect, with an unexpected flap of its wings, escaped from the net and came fluttering, as if to taunt him, very close to the hunter who, carried away by the heat of the chase, soon found himself led far from his friends. Finally, stopping near a large oak, the moth seemed within range, and Nono thought […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter IX

October 28, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter VIII] IX THE PROMENADE Nono had been in Autonomie for some time, and that time seemed to have passed like a dream. The time passed quietly; each day brought diverse labors and pleasures, which prevented the children from being bored for a single minute. Nono now knew all his comrades by name, knew who their parents were, what they did, and what country they came from. Most of the time, school-hours were spent in the gardens, on the lawns; but, for variety, they had long since planned a long walk […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter VIII

October 24, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter VII] VIII THE SCHOOL Rising from the table, the children scattered on the lawn, where they organized all sorts of games. Nono, coming back down from his room, came to mingle with them. But a group of young ladies, from five to seven years old, wanted him to commence his lesson on the art of weaving flowers, and he acceded to their desire. It is in the midst of this group that, an hour later, Hans, Mab and company came to look for him. “We’re going to school,” they said […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter VII

October 21, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter VI] VII LABOR IN AUTONOMIE It was broad daylight, the next day, whenNono was awakened by a band of his comrades who had invaded his bedroom. “Boo! lazybones,” said Mab, mocking him. “the idler who still sleeps and the sun that dazzles him. Yoo-hoo! “Come on! Get up,” said Hans, “we came to get you to go gardening.” “No,” said Mab, he promised last night to come with me and see the cows milked. I’ll take him”. Nono rose briskly, put on his trousers, dressing in the blink of an […]