John Henry Mackay: Autobiographical Writings

This volume also includes Dear Tucker, Mackay’s letters to his American anarchist friend Benjamin R. Tucker, written in English since Tucker did not read German. Although one-sided—the letters from Tucker to Mackay were destroyed—the correspondence gives evidence of a life-long, warm friendship between the leading representatives of individualist anarchism in Germany and America respectively. The letters have been supplied with notes that identity the many persons mentioned in them, thus helping to place them historically. Of particular interest is the insight they give into Mackay’s literary struggle, under the pseudonym Sagitta, to promote the cause of love between men and boys. The letters reveal the ruthless opposition of the state in a classic example of the use of raw power to crush individual liberty.

Together, Summing Up and Dear Tucker give us unexpected insights into the life and writings of John Henry Mackay. They help us better appreciate this Scotch-German lyricist, novelist, biographer, and anarchist propagandist whose writings are indeed so various that they escape classification.