[ANARCHISM] [MOST, Johann, ed]

Internationale Bibliothek. Erscheint jeden Monat. 16 seiten stark. 10 Issues [of 17]

New York: John Müller, 1887. First Edition. Ten octavo issues (22.5cm) in original stapled self-wrappers; 16pp per issue. Mild to moderate external soil and wear; first and/or last leaves neatly detached on three issues (but all present); still a clean and well-preserved grouping, Very Good. Texts primarily in German. Of the full run of seventeen issues, the following ten issues are present:

No. 1 (April 1887); 2 (May); 4 (July); 7-13 (October 1887 – March 1888).

Representative run of an important and extremely uncommon periodical, edited and almost entirely written by the German emigré communist-anarchist Johann Most. Most (1846-1906), by trade a bookbinder, emigrated to New York in 1882. A follower of Bakunin, Most quickly established himself as the lead- ing spokesman for “Propaganda by the Deed” in America; his weekly newspaper Freiheit, founded in 1879, emerged as the dominant German-language anarchist periodical of the period. “Most’s influence on the anarchist movement in New York and other eastern cities was unquestionably profound and lasting...[at a meeting of the International Working People’s Association] in Pittsburgh, Most emerged as the leading East Coast delegate and authored the conference’s proclamation ...[which] declared that the people had a right to overthrow an oppressive government and that through ‘organization and unity’, propaganda by the deed should coexist with propaganda by the word” (Tom Goyens, “Johann Most and the German Anarchists” in Radical Gotham: Anarchism in New York City from Schwab’s Saloon to Occupy Wal Street, Urbana, 2017).

Following the Haymarket Affair of 1886, Most largely renounced spontaneous political violence in favor of organized activity, including the establishment of working-class militias. He continued to publish Freiheit, but the paper’s tone moderated through the 1890s; in 1892, Most even published a denunciation of Alexander Berkman’s attempted assassination of Henry Clay Frick, precipitating a deep rift between Most and such former allies as Berkman and Emma Goldman.

Internationale Bibliothek dates from this post-Haymarket period and served as a vehicle for presenting Most’s own revolutionary writings. Though given a serial title, the pamphlets stand alone, each containing a full essay, of which nearly all are signed by Most. Many of his best-known polemics made their first appearance in this series, including “An Das Proletariat” (Issue 1), “Die Göttespest” (issue 3, lacking from this run), and “Die Hoelle von Blackwells Island,” recounting Most’s imprisonment following the Haymarket Massacre (issue 2). Rare: OCLC notes perhaps 7 full runs in North America, with scattered holdings for individual issues. Indexed in Arndt-Olson, but with no entry. HOERDER, Immigrant Labor Press in North America, III:413. NETTLAU pp 157-9 (citing several individual titles by Most).

Price: $2,500.00

Go Back