Table Of ContentExquisite 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
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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
335(cid:2).83(cid:2)092—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,”1on 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 influ-
enced 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.
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