Clarence Lee Swartz (1868–1936) was an American individualist anarchist, whose best-known work, What is Mutualism? (1927) is a book explaining the economic system of mutualism.
(1 January 1900)
Swartz was a friend of Benjamin Tucker and frequent contributor of signed and unsigned editorials to Tucker's newspaper Liberty.[1] In addition, he worked for a series of anarchist newspapers and journals. He worked in the mechanical department of Liberty beginning in 1891,[2] edited an anarchist journal called Voice of the People[3] and served as assistant editor for Moses Harman's journal Lucifer, the Light-Bearer in 1890.[4] Swartz was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri for distributing a newspaper called Sunday Sun in 1891. The charges were dropped when the prosecutor failed to show in court. He published two individualist anarchist periodicals at the turn of the century, I (beginning in 1898) and The Free Comrade (beginning in 1900).[5] In 1908, Tucker's publishing business, including most of his books and plates, were destroyed in a fire and after Tucker retired from publishing and moved to Europe, "practically all of the literature of individualist anarchism [went] out of print".[6]
Swartz made efforts throughout the 1920s to revive the individualist literature. He prepared and edited Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker (New York: Vanguard Press), a collection of excerpts from Tucker's writing in Liberty, which was the first collection of Tucker's writing since Tucker's own collection Instead of a Book. In 1923 he worked together with Charles T. Sprading and J. William Lloyd on The Libertarian, a magazine opposed to blue laws, Prohibition and the censorship of arts and entertainment.[7]
References
edit- ^ Vanguard Press (1926), "Publisher's Note," in Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker, edited by C.L.S. New York: Vanguard Press.
- ^ Vanguard Press (1926), "Publisher's Note," in Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker, edited by C.L.S. New York: Vanguard Press.
- ^ Sears, Hal D. (1977). The Sex Radicals: Free Love in High Victorian America. Regents Press of Kansas. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-7006-0148-6.
- ^ James J. Martin (1970/2009), Men Against the State. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute. 258.
- ^ James J. Martin (1970/2009), Men Against the State. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute. 258.
- ^ C.L.S. (1926), "Editor's Foreword," in Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker, edited by C.L.S. New York: Vanguard Press.
- ^ The Libertarian: An ANTI-BLUE-LAW MAGAZINE, Vol. I, No. 1 (Third Quarter, 1923).
External links
edit- Clarence Lee Swartz (1898), I (Number One), July 1898.
- Clarence Lee Swartz (1898), I (Number Two), August 1898.
- Clarence Lee Swartz (1923), "Our Purpose and Reason for Being", in The Libertarian Vol. I, No. 1. 1.
- Clarence Lee Swartz (1927). What is Mutualism?.