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Emma Goldman : An Intimate Life
Based on newly discovered correspondence, this book reveals the private life behind the public legend of "Red Emma," a Jewish immigrant, anarchist, and supporter of women's rights and sexual freedom.
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First published September 12, 1984
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About the author
Alice Wexler
13 books7 followersAlice Wexler received a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University in 1972. She has taught at UC Riverside, the California Institute of Technology, Claremont Graduate School, Occidental College and UCLA. She has been a Research Scholar at UCLA's Center for the Study of Women since 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 7, 2014
Not officially a two volume set, both Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life and Emma Goldman In Exile are well-researched biographies of the two halves of the famed anarchist's life: B.E. (Before Exile) and A.E. (I'll leave you guess what this stands for). Sent packing from the U.S. after years of anti-government rhetoric, Emma Goldman spent the last twenty years of her life yearning for what she did during the first forty. Or at least, this is the inherent implication in Ms. Wexler's books, which cut a definitive line down the middle of Emma Goldman's life. Ms. Wexler is not in love with Emma Goldman, which makes her an ideal author to conduct this study: there are no rose tinted glasses here, and both books are thoroug, sometimes critical examination of Emma, her politics and the world in which she tried to implement them.
An essential bit of Goldman scholarship, Ms. Wexler's tomes are only quasi-chronological; although events are grouped in rough accordance with a timeline. Ms. Wexler isn't afraid to deviate it from this if it suits her thematic approach. She prefers to discuss Emma's life this way, alternating between the personal and the political in order to give us the full picture of a woman once called "the most dangerous woman in America". This creates a fascinating juxtaposition, as Emma's personal life appears to have contrasted sharply with the cultivated public persona. To the world she was Emma Goldman the Anarchist, who provoked riots, advocated birth control, fought against conscription and inspired Leon Czologosz to shoot President McKinley (Czologosz himself claimed to have been inspired by Goldman's lectures). But behind the scenes she was a scarred romantic, often to the point of desperation. Just as she leapt from one cause to the next, Emma Goldman's life was dotted by a series of ill-fated affairs, each of which have their own air of near-Shakespearian tragedy.
Both books succeed in deliver the fascinating story that is Emma Goldman's life. Born in Russia during the Franco-Prussian War, she emigrated to the U.S. where she became an anarchist, suffered a failed marriage, went to jail several times and was finally deported in 1917. Returning to Bolshevik Russia, she was instantly disappointed by what she found, sending her on a twenty year odyssey to find both a new cause and a new home. There's an ache to the second half of Emma' story, which may be why I found it much more engaging then the first. There is a deeper struggle in the second half of Emma's life, an urgency that is largely absent from her earlier years. At least, this is how it is presented by Alice Wexler; whether consciously or not, even her sharp pen takes pity on Emma.
Still, these aren't perfect examinations of Emma's life. Ms. Wexler has her preference when it comes to subject - she delves deeply into Emma's politics, but speaks very little about Emma's stance on birth control. Even so, one can't deny that the subtitle to the first book - An Intimate Life - is highly appropriate. Who knew that Emma Goldman could write such dirty letters? By rummaging through Emma Goldman's mailbag, Ms. Wexler reveals a lusty mind with a sexual appetite not often attributed to women of the era. The letters to Ben Reitman - a whorehouse physician who Emma loved during the first years of the 20th century - are especially lewd, sometimes bordering on the pornographic (at least for that era). In later years, there is a clear indication of Emma trying to recapture some of this lust with her other lovers, often with limited success.
According to Ms. Wexler, then, there is something of the classic historical tragedy in Emma Goldman. A towering inspiration in her professional life (to this day there are Emma Goldman societies), she seems to have spent most of her personal life hungering for more.
An essential bit of Goldman scholarship, Ms. Wexler's tomes are only quasi-chronological; although events are grouped in rough accordance with a timeline. Ms. Wexler isn't afraid to deviate it from this if it suits her thematic approach. She prefers to discuss Emma's life this way, alternating between the personal and the political in order to give us the full picture of a woman once called "the most dangerous woman in America". This creates a fascinating juxtaposition, as Emma's personal life appears to have contrasted sharply with the cultivated public persona. To the world she was Emma Goldman the Anarchist, who provoked riots, advocated birth control, fought against conscription and inspired Leon Czologosz to shoot President McKinley (Czologosz himself claimed to have been inspired by Goldman's lectures). But behind the scenes she was a scarred romantic, often to the point of desperation. Just as she leapt from one cause to the next, Emma Goldman's life was dotted by a series of ill-fated affairs, each of which have their own air of near-Shakespearian tragedy.
Both books succeed in deliver the fascinating story that is Emma Goldman's life. Born in Russia during the Franco-Prussian War, she emigrated to the U.S. where she became an anarchist, suffered a failed marriage, went to jail several times and was finally deported in 1917. Returning to Bolshevik Russia, she was instantly disappointed by what she found, sending her on a twenty year odyssey to find both a new cause and a new home. There's an ache to the second half of Emma' story, which may be why I found it much more engaging then the first. There is a deeper struggle in the second half of Emma's life, an urgency that is largely absent from her earlier years. At least, this is how it is presented by Alice Wexler; whether consciously or not, even her sharp pen takes pity on Emma.
Still, these aren't perfect examinations of Emma's life. Ms. Wexler has her preference when it comes to subject - she delves deeply into Emma's politics, but speaks very little about Emma's stance on birth control. Even so, one can't deny that the subtitle to the first book - An Intimate Life - is highly appropriate. Who knew that Emma Goldman could write such dirty letters? By rummaging through Emma Goldman's mailbag, Ms. Wexler reveals a lusty mind with a sexual appetite not often attributed to women of the era. The letters to Ben Reitman - a whorehouse physician who Emma loved during the first years of the 20th century - are especially lewd, sometimes bordering on the pornographic (at least for that era). In later years, there is a clear indication of Emma trying to recapture some of this lust with her other lovers, often with limited success.
According to Ms. Wexler, then, there is something of the classic historical tragedy in Emma Goldman. A towering inspiration in her professional life (to this day there are Emma Goldman societies), she seems to have spent most of her personal life hungering for more.
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February 28, 2025This is an extraordinarily intimate, lively, well-researched and readable biography that kind of changed my perspective on Goldman, whom I thought I already knew quite well. It balances really well between giving the political and historical context of her thought and actions and telling a touching, psychologically compelling story about a complex, tortured human being who comes of as admirable in some ways but deeply flawed in others -- she seems to have been capable of some messed up behavior, sometimes almost abusive, both in her toxic relationship to Ben Reitman and in the way she treated her devoted followers. I devoured this book and just wish it had covered Goldman's life post-deportation to Russia as well.
July 20, 2024
Took me what felt like forever to get through, but only because there was SO much thorough information sourced from all sides and perspectives that together all focused to create both an effective public and inner lens into the life of emma goldman. Queen "believed in free love and smoked upwards of 40 cigarettes a day"
March 12, 2017
I'm glad to have learned more about this iconic figure of anarchism, and about the particular development of anarchism in America in the early 20th century. There is a great deal of detail here, painstakingly and thoroughly researched, so be patient.
September 8, 2013
So I've got a new job, and I suddenly need to improve my knowledge of anarchist history and literature - you know how it is. As a random starting point, I picked a battered old copy of this off the shelves at the library. I liked it a lot. Wexler's got a fairly light touch when it comes to exploring the nuts and bolts of anarchist theory and Emma Goldman's relationship with it (this is 'an intimate life', after all), but Goldman's life anyway turns out to provide an awesome historical record of the radical American left in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. And her love affairs are marvelous: Alexander Berkman is all very well, but Ben Reitman is clearly the real heartthrob of this book. Goldman's x-rated letters to him are just the kind of thing a good historical biography needs.
November 2, 2012
Informative but dull
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September 23, 2010Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life by Alice R. Wexler (1984)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews