... not just an elite of well-known theorists or activists, but we haven't managed to follow the line of inquiry that observation seems to imply, addressing and disseminating the best from all of those other writings.
This is equally true, of course, of all sorts of uncollected writing from the anarchist press. So far, we've focused on a very small number of writers, who were perhaps not even the most prolific contributors. We talk a lot about anarchist theory being formulated by anarchists generally...
There's a marvelous work waiting for some anarchist studies scholar with the patience to assemble and translate representative collections of the various woman-focused columns. There are probably also a lot of surprises in store for anyone willing to take on the work.
I always feel bad that I can't devote more time and energy to early-20th-century anarchist feminist material. We're fortunate in a few cases, like that of Nelly Roussel, to have some collections, but there are lots of regular feminist contributors to the anarchist press who deserve anthologization.
Drafts of all of the chapters are now online. I'll prepare a pdf — cleaned up a bit and properly formatted — when my head gets just a bit clearer.
Drafts of the essays in Chapter V are complete. That leaves less than 6000 words of material, so I may try to finish later this evening.
There's translation strategy document coming for the New Proudhon Library, summarizing and extending material that has appeared in various translations, but hasn't had the visibility that it should. It will get its practical test in a new introductory volume, built around "Philosophy of Progress."
PROUDHON’S CORRESPONDENCE (LACROIX) 1832-1839 — 43,500 words 1840 — 21,000 1841 — 30,000 1842 — 16,500 1843 — 14,000 1844 — 16,500 1845 — 4,000 1846 — 11,500 1847 — 14,500 1848 — 24,500 1848 — 27,500 1850 — 72,500 1851 — 52,000 1852 — 71,000 1853 — 41,500 1854 — 40,000 1855 — 40,500 1856 — 36,500 1857 — 26,000 1858 — 82,000 1859 — 78,000 1860 — 74,500 1861 — 87,500 1862 — 74,500 1863 — 81,500 1864 — 55,000 1865 — 1,500
Word-counts for each year for the published correspondence of Proudhon (Lacroix):
Drafts of the ten essay on "Moral and Sexual Liberty" have now been added. They're a strange read in the context of modern reactionary ideology, with lots of cranky, but familiar takes on fertility and surrounding issues.
I've been so sick for a couple of weeks that I haven't been able to even walk the couple of blocks to the woods, but I got a chance today. It's a bounce-back year for trillium, which is lovely, but the unexpected finds were a little stand of Large-leafed avens and another of Disappointing buttercup.
Draft translations of two more chapters – nine more essays – have been added. I need to finish cleaning up the French text – still about 21,000 words – but I'm working from pretty clean OCR.
I have been very sick for the past two weeks, but I'm starting to putter again at the usual tasks: www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...
My favorite detail about Portland's "beloved" Thompson Elk Fountain, which is being reinstalled: "According to the city, the Exalted Order of Elks refused to dedicate it because they considered the statue "a monstrosity of art.""
Cover of Guillaume Davranche, 10 Questions on anarchism
Back cover with the book summary: ‘a small book on anarchism for the wider public - accessible, cheap and covering the basic of anarchism’
Available very soon from @activedistribution.bsky.social, @gdavranche.bsky.social’s ‘Ten Questions on Anarchism’ - a small and very informative book covering all the basics.
Lovingly translated from French by yours truly, Paul Bowman and Anthony Zurbrugg.
"I have taken great pains in the making of this little book. I fear that it will be still more painful to read." — There are some textual issues with the book—some proofreading/typesetting errors and a bit of obscure vocabulary that might be complicated by those errors—but it's a real early gem.
![[Mock-up of title page]
THE SOCIALIST SOIREES OF NEW YORK
ATERCRACY
Social liquidation
is the order of the day.
PRACTICAL SOLUTION OF SOCIALISM
and of the
FEDERATIONS CALLED TO FORM
THE REPUBLIC OF PEOPLES
BY
EDUALC REITTELLEP ◈ CLAUDE PELLETIER
A working translation by Shawn P. Wilbur,
from the new edition:
NEW-YORK
1873](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fzvywsfxtkqs6ipbtdjwb5ru/bafkreif3afy4b7e7ek3emdoi4oczjja4gydicnql44brpvqlhhs2p4oypi)
[Mock-up of title page] THE SOCIALIST SOIREES OF NEW YORK ATERCRACY Social liquidation is the order of the day. PRACTICAL SOLUTION OF SOCIALISM and of the FEDERATIONS CALLED TO FORM THE REPUBLIC OF PEOPLES BY EDUALC REITTELLEP ◈ CLAUDE PELLETIER A working translation by Shawn P. Wilbur, from the new edition: NEW-YORK 1873
Work in progress:
Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria — the white, spotted form of Baby Blue eyes — is a nice way to get the blooming in my new wildflower garden started.
The next round of native blooms is redwood sorrel, candyflower, salmonberry and the very, very small-flowered Nemophila parviflora. It looks like it will be a very good year for bleeding heart in the local woods and there's at least one new-to-me stand of western trillium close to flowering already.
The first native wildflower blooming this spring in the local woods is Nuttall's toothwort (Cardamine nuttallii), a little native bittercress that I was unaware of before today.
oregonflora.org/taxa/index.p...
The story was widely published. Here's the full page from the "Democrat and Chronicle," as well as an "LA Times Sun" version.
Another pamphlet from Ramón de la Sagra translated: "Some Ideas on the Organization of Labor and Free Competition” (1847)
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-aut...
New Translation: Ramón de la Sagra, “On the Imprecision of Economic Principles and the Teaching of Political Economy in Colleges” (1847) — This is a nice intro, providing lots to think about when it comes to similarities to and differences from Proudhon. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/u...
An entertaining work, which seems to come around as a useful reference more often than one would like or expect: archive.org/details/Brou...
I have added a draft translation of Ramón de la Sagra's "Bank of the People" (1849) to my translations from his work. The book was published in support of Proudhon's free credit project. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-aut...
Ramón de la Sagra wrote "Bank of the People: Theory and Practice" as a general work, with particular attention to Proudhon's project in the first and last chapters. After the failure of the project, it appears he rewrote those chapters and republished it as "Economic Revolution: Causes and Means."
I am working on an expanded edition of "Solution of the Social Problem," which collected Proudhon's work on mutual credit. That project involves collecting writings by his collaborators—a significant selection of which are now linked at the page below:
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...
The "Detailed Explanation of the Bank of the People" is sufficiently detailed that we learn how we might have attempted to purchase camels in Paris in 1848, using its circulation vouchers.
My break from the work on Proudhon's property theory was a quick translation of Ramón de la Sagra's "Social Aphorisms," the 1848 version of a work that he appears to have written and rewritten a number of times in the 1840s. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-aut...
This post has really exploded in scope, mostly in useful, if complicated ways. My seven key descriptions of "property" have become ten and I think I find the materials for most of them — including some version of "property is liberty" in "What is Property?" But it's not an easy story to tell.
I got curious about what — and how many different things — the "Encyclopédie Anarchiste" had to say about "organization." You'll find all of the entries for that term, plus a few related ones, quickly, but newly translated at the link below:
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-en...