Emma Goldman

Author profile

born

June 27, 1869 in Kaunas, Lithuania

died

May 14, 1940

gender

female

genre

Politics, Women & Gender Studies, Philosophy

About this author

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Emma Goldman was a feminist anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.

Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania), Goldman emigrated to the US in 1885 and lived in New York City, where she joined the burgeoning anarchist movement.Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands.

She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of prop...more Emma Goldman was a feminist anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.

Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania), Goldman emigrated to the US in 1885 and lived in New York City, where she joined the burgeoning anarchist movement.Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands.

She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Although Frick survived the attempt on his life, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. Goldman was imprisoned several times in the years that followed, for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth.

In 1917, Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with hundreds of others—and deported to Russia.

Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Goldman quickly voiced her opposition to the Soviet use of violence and the repression of independent voices. In 1923, she wrote a book about her experiences, My Disillusionment in Russia. While living in England, Canada, and France, she wrote an autobiography called Living My Life. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Spain to support the anarchist revolution there. She died in Toronto on May 14, 1940, aged 70.

During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution.Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism. After decades of obscurity, Goldman's iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.(less)

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Books by Emma Goldman

Average rating: 4.06 · 5,459 ratings · 369 reviews · 48 distinct works

	Anarchism and Other Essays 4.07 avg rating — 941 ratings — published 1910 — 49 editions	My rating:
	Living My Life by Emma Goldman, Miriam Brody 4.26 avg rating — 729 ratings — published 1970 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Living My Life, Vol. 1 4.33 avg rating — 171 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Red Emma Speaks by Emma Goldman, Alix Kates Shulman 4.21 avg rating — 136 ratings — published 1972 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Living My Life, Vol. 2 4.38 avg rating — 123 ratings — published 1970 — 9 editions	My rating:
	Marriage and Love 4.13 avg rating — 47 ratings — published 2000 — 9 editions	My rating:
	The Traffic in Women and Other Essays on Feminism by Emma Goldman, Alix K. Shulman (Editor) 3.91 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 1971	My rating:
	My Disillusionment in Russia 3.91 avg rating — 46 ratings — published 1970 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution by Emma Goldman (Editor), David Porter (Editor) 3.85 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 1983 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Anarchism - What it Really Stands For 4.07 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1998 — 3 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Emma Goldman

“If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.”
― Emma Goldman

tags: anarchy , music , revolution

570 people liked it

“If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.”
― Emma Goldman

100 people liked it

“Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.”
― Emma Goldman

tags: anarchy , forgiveness , understanding-others

90 people liked it

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Emma Goldman

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Quotes by Emma Goldman

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Books by Emma Goldman