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Bibliography
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What is Anarchism?
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Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader, 2nd Edition
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The Russian Tragedy
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The ABC of Anarchism
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Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.
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Alexander Berkman (1870-1936)
The youngest of four children, Alexander Berkman (ne Ovsei Osipovich Berkman) was born in Vilna, Russia (today, Vilnius, Lithuania) on November 21, 1870. He grew up in St. Petersberg, the son of an affluent Jewish businessman. Berkman's uncle had been exiled to Siberia for revolutionary activities, so rebellion was part of the family lore. Berkman's own rebeliousness exhibited itself early, when as a student he was in a group which read Nihilist works and other forbidden literature. Attracted to radical ideas early, he was expelled from school after submitting an atheistic essay to his instructors. Expelled and without options (both of his parents died when he was young), Berkman emigrated to the United States in 1887 and settled in New York City. He quickly involved himself in the city's radical political communities, joining the fight to free the men convicted of the Haymarket Bombing. He was a well-known anarchist leader in the United States and life-long friend of Emma Goldman, a young Russian immigrant whom he met on her first day in New York City. The two became lovers and moved in together, remaining close friends for the rest of Berkman's life. He got work as a type setter for Johann Most's anarchist newspaper, Freiheit, and later worked with Goldman on Mother Earth and his own journal, The Blast. His dramatic attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick led to his imprisonment for fourteen years. In all, Berkman spent over twenty years in prison. Among his numerous agitational writings the best-known of his books are Prison Memoirs, and The Bolshevik Myth. He committed suicide on June 28, 1936."
In memoriam: Alexander Berkman Vanguard Volume 3, No3 Aug-Sept 1936 (Ed. note: this brief but vivid account of the life and workof Alexander Berkman was written for the Vanguard by one of Berkman's intimate friends who prefers to remain anonymous.) "When Alexander Berkman's tragic end was announced, many of the older comrades, who knew him personally, felt that his death had left a space which would never be filled. This was the logical fate of a man who, when a mere youth of twenty-two, was ready to take the life of another whose brutal egotism brought misery and suffering to thousands of people. At sixty-six, he brought this life to an end when he felt he could serve life no longer. When Berkman started to avenge the Homestead strikers forty-four years ago he knew a deed like that could only be paid for by his death and he was ready to sacrifice his young life without hesitation for his outraged sense of justice. No matter how one evaluates his deed, none would doubt his sincerity if one only had the patience to delve into the complicated soul of humanity and guess its secrets. When a person, particularly a young man whose life still has everything to offer, is ready to risk his all without hope of return, he must not be evaluated by ordinary standards. This is a deed which can only be explained when its motives are appreciated. He who does not understand how one could give everything for a cause which bore for him the whole meaning of life, will never understand a person like Berkman. The average philistine who calculates his life by profit and loss, and whose hardened soul cannot understand any action which is not motivated by the desire for profit, will never see in people like Berkman other than brutal force who menace the existence of society. They will never comprehend that it was not crudeness of sentiment that made Berkman commit his deed, but that it was his love for humanity, his respect for human life, that impelled him to take a life. This rare trait was characteristic of Berkman to his very end and was the key to his personality. It is not one's political beliefs but the inner feelings which shape character. Berkman was everything but a man of force: he was a man of great kindliness, a sincere friend and a splendid comrade, one who lived through the happiness and sorrows of his fellow humans. His clear thinking, colored by a somewhat naive sentimentality, made everybody love him. In this lies the elementary greatness of his personality, the root of his moral influence. He was no sectarian and could tolerate any sincerely presented opinion, but he always knew how best to express his own ideas when the occasion arose."
The youngest of four children, Alexander Berkman (ne Ovsei Osipovich Berkman) was born in Vilna, Russia (today, Vilnius, Lithuania) on November 21, 1870. He grew up in St. Petersberg, the son of an affluent Jewish businessman. Berkman's uncle had been exiled to Siberia for revolutionary activities, so rebellion was part of the family lore. Berkman's own rebeliousness exhibited itself early, when as a student he was in a group which read Nihilist works and other forbidden literature. Attracted to radical ideas early, he was expelled from school after submitting an atheistic essay to his instructors. Expelled and without options (both of his parents died when he was young), Berkman emigrated to the United States in 1887 and settled in New York City. He quickly involved himself in the city's radical political communities, joining the fight to free the men convicted of the Haymarket Bombing. He was a well-known anarchist leader in the United States and life-long friend of Emma Goldman, a young Russian immigrant whom he met on her first day in New York City. The two became lovers and moved in together, remaining close friends for the rest of Berkman's life. He got work as a type setter for Johann Most's anarchist newspaper, Freiheit, and later worked with Goldman on Mother Earth and his own journal, The Blast. His dramatic attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick led to his imprisonment for fourteen years. In all, Berkman spent over twenty years in prison. Among his numerous agitational writings the best-known of his books are Prison Memoirs, and The Bolshevik Myth. He committed suicide on June 28, 1936."
In memoriam: Alexander Berkman Vanguard Volume 3, No3 Aug-Sept 1936 (Ed. note: this brief but vivid account of the life and workof Alexander Berkman was written for the Vanguard by one of Berkman's intimate friends who prefers to remain anonymous.) "When Alexander Berkman's tragic end was announced, many of the older comrades, who knew him personally, felt that his death had left a space which would never be filled. This was the logical fate of a man who, when a mere youth of twenty-two, was ready to take the life of another whose brutal egotism brought misery and suffering to thousands of people. At sixty-six, he brought this life to an end when he felt he could serve life no longer. When Berkman started to avenge the Homestead strikers forty-four years ago he knew a deed like that could only be paid for by his death and he was ready to sacrifice his young life without hesitation for his outraged sense of justice. No matter how one evaluates his deed, none would doubt his sincerity if one only had the patience to delve into the complicated soul of humanity and guess its secrets. When a person, particularly a young man whose life still has everything to offer, is ready to risk his all without hope of return, he must not be evaluated by ordinary standards. This is a deed which can only be explained when its motives are appreciated. He who does not understand how one could give everything for a cause which bore for him the whole meaning of life, will never understand a person like Berkman. The average philistine who calculates his life by profit and loss, and whose hardened soul cannot understand any action which is not motivated by the desire for profit, will never see in people like Berkman other than brutal force who menace the existence of society. They will never comprehend that it was not crudeness of sentiment that made Berkman commit his deed, but that it was his love for humanity, his respect for human life, that impelled him to take a life. This rare trait was characteristic of Berkman to his very end and was the key to his personality. It is not one's political beliefs but the inner feelings which shape character. Berkman was everything but a man of force: he was a man of great kindliness, a sincere friend and a splendid comrade, one who lived through the happiness and sorrows of his fellow humans. His clear thinking, colored by a somewhat naive sentimentality, made everybody love him. In this lies the elementary greatness of his personality, the root of his moral influence. He was no sectarian and could tolerate any sincerely presented opinion, but he always knew how best to express his own ideas when the occasion arose."
