ascendingcoherence: WHOA! Emma Goldman’s autobiography is dynamite! I’m barely 100 pages in and her main lover, Alexander “Sasha” Berkman has attempted to assassinate the dastardly Henry Clay Frick.  He’s arrested, of course.  Meanwhile, Johann Most, her one-time mentor (who always disliked Sasha) is publicly downplaying Sasha’s courage and motives (despite the fact Most always encouraged revolutionary violence of this kind).  Emma is pissed. The world Most had enriched for me, the life so full of colour and beauty, all lay shattered at my feet. Only the naked fact remained that Most had betrayed his ideal, had betrayed us. I resolved to challenge him publicly to prove his insinuations, to compel him to explain his sudden reversal of attitude in the face of danger. I replied to his article, in the Anarchist, demanding an explanation and branding Most as a traitor and a coward. I waited for two weeks for a reply in the Freiheit, but none appeared. There were no proofs, and I knew that he could not justify his base accusations. I bought a horsewhip. At Most’s next lecture I sat in the front row, close to the low platform. My hand was on the whip under my long, grey cloak. When he got up and faced the audience, I rose and declared in a loud voice: “I came to demand proof of your insinuations against Alexander Berkman.” There was instant silence. Most mumbled something about “hysterical woman,” but he said nothing else. I then pulled out my whip and leaped towards him. Repeatedly I lashed him across the face and neck, then broke the whip over my knee and threw the pieces at him. It was all done so quickly that no one had time to interfere. Holy crap!  I did not see that coming! 1892 drawing from Harper’s Weekly of Alexander Berkman attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick via Wikimedia Commons. Click for high-res photo

ascendingcoherence:

WHOA! Emma Goldman’s autobiography is dynamite! I’m barely 100 pages in and her main lover, Alexander “Sasha” Berkman has attempted to assassinate the dastardly Henry Clay Frick.  He’s arrested, of course.  Meanwhile, Johann Most, her one-time mentor (who always disliked Sasha) is publicly downplaying Sasha’s courage and motives (despite the fact Most always encouraged revolutionary violence of this kind).  Emma is pissed.

The world Most had enriched for me, the life so full of colour and beauty, all lay shattered at my feet. Only the naked fact remained that Most had betrayed his ideal, had betrayed us.

I resolved to challenge him publicly to prove his insinuations, to compel him to explain his sudden reversal of attitude in the face of danger. I replied to his article, in the Anarchist, demanding an explanation and branding Most as a traitor and a coward. I waited for two weeks for a reply in the Freiheit, but none appeared. There were no proofs, and I knew that he could not justify his base accusations. I bought a horsewhip.

At Most’s next lecture I sat in the front row, close to the low platform. My hand was on the whip under my long, grey cloak. When he got up and faced the audience, I rose and declared in a loud voice: “I came to demand proof of your insinuations against Alexander Berkman.”

There was instant silence. Most mumbled something about “hysterical woman,” but he said nothing else. I then pulled out my whip and leaped towards him. Repeatedly I lashed him across the face and neck, then broke the whip over my knee and threw the pieces at him. It was all done so quickly that no one had time to interfere.

Holy crap!  I did not see that coming!

1892 drawing from Harper’s Weekly of Alexander Berkman attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick via Wikimedia Commons.

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