Exquisite Rebel: the Essays of Voltairine De Cleyre— Feminist, Anarchist, Genius

Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre— Feminist, Anarchist, Genius Sharon Presley Crispin Sartwell Editors State University of New York Press Exquisite Rebel Voltairine de Cleyre, Philadelphia, 1901. Exquisite Rebel The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre— Feminist, Anarchist, Genius Voltairine de Cleyre Sharon Presley and Crispin Sartwell, editors State University of New York Press Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2005 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207 Production by Michael Haggett Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data De Cleyre, Voltairine, 1866–1912. Exquisite rebel : essays of Voltairine de Cleyre : American feminist, anarchist, genius / Voltairine de Cleyre ; Sharon Presley and Crispin Sartwell, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6093-2 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6094-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Anarchism—United States. 2. Feminism—United States. 3. De Cleyre, Voltairine, 1866–1912—Criticism and interpretation. I. Presley, Sharon. II. Sartwell, Crispin, 1958– III. Title. HX843.D43 2005 335Ј.83Ј092—dc22 2004059138 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Crispin Sartwell dedicates his work on this volume to his daughters Emma and Jane. May they live freely. Sharon Presley dedicates her work on this volume to the memories of her mother Geneva Presley and her friend Arlen Riley Wilson, each remarkable women in their own way. Voltairine de Cleyre, Chicago, 1910. Contents Foreword by Candace Falk ix Acknowledgments xiii Part I Biographical Essays: Three Views of Voltairine de Cleyre “Priestess of Pity and Vengeance” by Crispin Sartwell 3 “The Exquisite Rebel: The Anarchist Life of Voltairine de Cleyre” by Sharon Presley 17 “Emma Goldman’s ‘Voltairine de Cleyre’: A Moving but Flawed Tribute” by Sharon Presley 27 “Voltairine de Cleyre” by Emma Goldman 29 Part II Loving Freedom: Anarchism without Adjectives Introduction by Sharon Presley 47 “Why I am an Anarchist” 51 “Anarchism” 67 “Events are the True Schoolmaster” 83 “Anarchism and American Traditions” 89 “A Correction” 103 Part III Wild Freedom: A Passion for Liberty and Justice Introduction by Sharon Presley 109 “The Dominant Idea” 111 “Crime and Punishment” 125 “In Defense of Emma Goldman” 147 Part IV Neither Gods nor Superstitions: Freethought and Religion Introduction by Sharon Presley 161 “The Economic Tendency of Freethought” 165 “Secular Education” 179 vii viii Contents Part V No Authority but Oneself: The Anarchist Feminist Philosophy of Autonomy and Freedom Introduction by Sharon Presley 191 “Those Who Marry Do Ill” 195 “The Case of Woman Versus Orthodoxy” 207 “The Woman Question” 221 “Sex Slavery” 225 “The Political Equality of Women” 239 Part VI Not Another Brick in the Wall: Nonauthoritarian Education Introduction by Crispin Sartwell and Sharon Presley 247 “Modern Educational Reform” 251 Part VII Breaking the Chains: Changing Society through Direct Action Introduction by Crispin Sartwell 269 “Direct Action” 271 “The Eleventh of November, 1887” 287 “Our Present Attitude” 295 “McKinley’s Assassination: From the Anarchist Standpoint” 299 Part VIII The Political Is the Personal: Anarchist Esthetics Introduction by Crispin Sartwell 307 “Literature the Mirror of Man” 309 Index 325 Foreword The winds of turmoil and labor strife that ushered in twentieth century America were countered by extraordinary visionaries—women and men for whom the concept of complete freedom held the alluring promise of social harmony. Anarchism, a philosophy often considered on the outermost edge of possibility and conflated with chaos, attracted many remarkably eloquent and lucid thinkers. Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912), recognized in her circles as “the most thoughtful woman anarchist of this century,”1 on a par with Emma Goldman, her more florid Russian immigrant counterpart, has yet to be given an appropriate place in the permanent record. A long standing prejudice among American historians against a serious study of anarchism, combined with a frequent dismissal of women as an intellectual and political force consigned de Cleyre’s legacy almost exclusively under the guardianship of subsequent generations of anarchist followers, with few ‘non-believers’ among them. This, coupled with her untimely death at the age of forty-five, obscured her memory and threatened to diminish her importance. According to Paul Avrich, de Cleyre’s dazzling biographer, traces of the life and work of one of “the movement’s most respected and devoted representatives” left “the glow of legend”—“a brief comet in the anarchist firmament.” The publication of this new volume of Voltairine de Cleyre’s selected writings allows for the permanent historical record to stand corrected with an elegance and clarity fitting to its subject. The editors, Sharon Presley and Crispin Sartwell, chose representative essays that track the development of de Cleyre’s thought against a backdrop of ideas central to anarchist theo- rists and activists. Set in an anarchist frame, the collection offers the reader an opportunity to sample and engage in the flavor and content of debates on a variety of issues including the political equality of women, the economy, the social order, violence, religion, criminal justice, education, and aes- thetics—tracking the emergence of de Cleyre’s ideas as they were influenced by the works of others. Pieced together, her writings and accompanying introductory notes present bold patterns and surprising tangents to the broad, vibrant social and intellectual fabric of her time. ix x Foreword Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre—Feminist, Anarchist, Genius, is in itself an exquisite contribution. De Cleyre, who considered herself “more of a lecturer than an orator, and more of a writer than either”2 left coherent tracks explaining her under- standing of and attraction to anarchism, the reasons for her skepticism about religion and enthusiasm for the free thought movement, a philosophical analysis of the link between internal and external forces, between emotion and reason especially with regard to the habits of mind and accompanying behavior toward women and of women themselves. Practical templates for modern educational and criminal reform, critical pleas for the defense of imprisoned cohorts, and commentary on the controversies within the anarchist movement of her day, ground her more philosophical writings in contemporary action. Dubbed the “rebel-poet” by Emma Goldman, de Cleyre’s thrust to channel her emphatic concerns into a poetic cadence considered artful in her day, extended into an analysis of literary forms and particulars. Scientific, methodical, heartfelt and earnest—Voltairine de Cleyre’s singular devotion to anarchism—“the Dominant Idea”—is woven throughout the intriguing and classic selections of Exquisite Rebel. Not surprisingly, because Voltairine de Cleyre had few women contemporaries of her stature in the anarchist movement who combined her attributes as a thinker, writer, and lecturer, other than Emma Goldman; thus, they were, and continue to be, compared to each other. In spite of the under- lying sexism of such an exercise, evident when one examines the manner in which male contemporaries are compared and contrasted—most often with relation to their ideas, rather than their earnestness to the cause or lev- els of physical attractiveness (which in the case of de Cleyre and Goldman often displayed less about aesthetic sensibility and more about stereotypical ethnic prejudice), it is nonetheless an entwinement important to unravel. Both were profoundly influenced by the works of European anarchists, but found threads of anarchist impulses and ideology woven through America’s history and embodied in the ideology of the nation’s founders who spurned tyranny and nurtured the spirit of individualism and coop- eration. Yet, the relationship between the American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre who spent more of her time devoted to the education and welfare of Eastern European Jews than the Russian-Jewish immigrant Emma Goldman ever did, was constantly scrutinized. For a movement that heralded inde- pendence and freedom of the spirit, the two women were locked in a strangle hold alternatively of competition and of caring, of withdrawal and of staunch support for each others efforts. Temperamentally and culturally worlds apart, they were united by their unwavering devotion to the cause of anarchism, and a forced accountability to each other as the designated women of stature. United also by shared horrors of the so-called “Gilded Age” and lingering Foreword xi persecution for their beliefs, they wrote for and about each other—often with great eloquence, and sometimes in a template of projected distortions. The light and the shadows of their lives flicker and intertwine. Goldman the outgoing, de Cleyre the introvert, each channeled inner darkness with an exquisite ability to perceive and articulate injustice and to move people toward the light of anarchism as the embodiment

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