The Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre

Poems, essays, and stories from a pioneer of women’s liberation and American anarchism.

Emma Goldman called her “the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced,” while historian Paul Avrich considered her “a greater literary talent than any other American anarchist.” In this facsimile reprint of a collection originally published in 1914 by Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth Publishing Association, de Cleyre’s gifts as a writer are undeniable, and read like a breath of fresh air even today.

Voltarine de Cleyre was a popular speaker and tireless writer at the turn of the twentieth century. Plagued by poverty, poor health, and chronic pain, she died prematurely at the age of forty-five in 1912.