Lizzie M. Holmes

fiction

Lizzie M. Holmes, “Only an Industrial Outcast” (1901)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
ONLY AN INDUSTRIAL OUTCAST. A homelike cottage, low, rambling, vine-clad and well shaded, faced toward the hills in the south, with the long, low, green valley and its winding stream in the center lying between, and the towers, steeples and chimneys of a village peeping above the trees at the western end. Behind the cottage rolled away broad fields, now nearly stripped of their harvests, and nearer stood well-filled barns and granaries, while on either side orchards and gardens showed the thrift and plenty of the owners. On the broad porch of the house sat two middle-aged men, lazily smoking […]
The Sex Question

Lizzie M. Holmes, “Woman’s Future Position in the World” (1898)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WOMAN’S FUTURE POSITION IN THE WORLD. To be strictly logical one should not treat of woman apart from the rest of the human race, for this is in a manner to admit that women are a distinct class, not affected by conditions, environment, etc., as men are. But we find a “woman question” actually existing. A great deal of discussion has been going on as to what is proper for woman, what her real nature is, and how many of the duties and privileges of man she should be admitted to. Women do not occupy the same position, socially, politically, […]
fiction

Lizzie M. Holmes, “World’s Exposition in the Year 2,000” (1896)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WORLD’S EXPOSITION IN THE YEAR 2,000. (A sketch which did not win the prize in the late Times-Herald competition.) The sun rose and sent a burst of glory over the sparkling lake, and glittering, smokeless city, that seemed to spring out of the water itself and stretch far away toward the western sky. At the same instant, music rich, soft, all-pervading, swelled out upon the still, sweet air, strains that could be heard in all parts of the city, and whose source could not be determined by the sound; a grand succession of rich harmonies in new and inspiring modulations, […]
fiction

May Huntley (Lizzie M. Holmes), “A Common Story Seldom Told” (1895)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
A COMMON STORY SELDOM TOLD. Two women sat in the dusk of a summer evening, where the glow from a western window fell on their faces, and the one star showing in the purplish radiance, looked in upon them sympathetically. Their voices were low and even—as voices grow in the hush of twilight when one revels in the “sweetness of doing nothing and confidences are so easy.” “There is something incongruous in hearing such words from your lips,” said the younger, a dark-eyed, stately woman whom others called haughty, but who was sweetness itself to the quiet, gentle lady at […]
The Sex Question

Lizzie M. Holmes, “Woman in Economics” (1892)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WOMAN IN ECONOMICS. Women have now entered nearly every profession and every trade that man ever followed. In the last hundred years a great change has come over both the industrial and social phases of society. The discovery of steam revolutionized the industrial world. Production and producers turned about in kaleidoscopic variance. That vague, restless rebellion against the narrow confines of her sphere, which other influences had been slowly creating in the hearts of women, was stimulated—forced into activity by the change. Simultaneously with the growth of a longing to escape from dependence and consequent bondage, came the necessity for […]
The Sex Question

Lizzie M. Holmes, “Woman’s Emancipation” (1891)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WOMAN’S EMANCIPATION. While it is certain emancipation would speedily follow economic freedom, it is not true that such emancipation is a part of or would come simultaneously with economic freedom. Heinzen said: “In the man the human being alone can be oppressed or liberated; in the woman the sex as well.” Woman is doubly, enslaved. She wears the chains her poor laboring brother wears, and, besides, the bonds he in his ignorance placed on her ages ago when he first began to take note of her periodical weakness. Naturally, it would not take long for an economically free woman to […]
The Sex Question

Lizzie M. Holmes, “Women in the Conflict” (1891)

July 24, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WOMEN IN THE CONFLICT. In numerous ways outside of the labor of hands, women are helping to guide the course of progress, molding the very forms of civilization. There are hosts of all classes of women in the busy West, who are making history, without whose records the annals of this country would be dark and incomplete. There are in Chicago alone over 300 women’s societies, all organized for some object of usefulness, mutual benefit or self improvement. From these societies the young, but already celebrated Woman’s Alliance was formed. Delegates, according to numbers of members, are sent from each […]
biography

Lizzie M. Holmes, “Nina Van Zandt Spies to Marry” (1891)

July 15, 2016
Nina Van Zandt Spies to Marry an Italian Editor. HER SENSATIONAL PROXY UNION. The Romance of the Trial of the Chicago Anarchists Retold.—The Authentic Story of a Woman’s Unwavering Devotion. ON ENTERING a certain museum in Chicago the first objects that attract the eye of the visitor are two excellent oil paintings, under one of which are the words, “Handsome August Spies,” and beneath the other, “Beautiful Nina Van Zandt.” The crowds invariably pause to gaze upon the pictures as they have done for more than four years. Time has not lessened the interest taken in these two characters and […]
The Sex Question

Stories by Voltairine de Cleyre and Lizzie Holmes

August 20, 2012
The anarchist tradition has always had a literary side. Even Proudhon was fond of inserting the occasional illustrative tale in his works. And the French tales of proletarian life which have been featured here had their counterparts in the English-language traditions. For instance, Lizzie M. Holmes wrote dozens of short stories for the anarchist and labor press, and Voltairine de Cleyre wrote a number as well. I’ve assembled a collection of Voltairine de Cleyre’s “Sketches and Stories,” combining the material from the Collected Works volume with a few sketches which were not included there. And I’ve also collected a few […]