VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE
Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912) was one of the most prolific and original anarchist thinkers and writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, although she is far less well known than her Russian contemporary Emma Goldman of the same era. Named after Voltaire, a French writer and philosopher who advocated for freedom of speech and civil liberties, Voltairine de Cleyre was born in 1866. Raised in poverty in rural Michigan, Voltairine’s father placed her in a convent at age thirteen. It was at this convent where the strength of will she would later be known for began to develop and where the roots of her journey towards anti-authoritarianism began to take root. Repelled by the oppression of religion and unchecked obedience, she left the convent at age seventeen as an atheist and began to contribute to atheist periodicals. She immersed herself in dedicated self-education and development of free thought. Like many others of her generation, the violent execution of the anarchist leaders following the Haymarket Riots in Chicago in 1886 cemented her conversion to anarchism. Shortly thereafter, she committed herself to the anarchist movement and dedicated herself to the cause of liberty for the rest of her life.
"Had Fefu not been in thrall to Phillip, had Julia not been vulnerable to the mysterious accident, they might have been Voltairine de Cleyres. Perhaps Paula could be a Voltairine de Cleyre, but Paula, like Masha in The Seagull, is in mourning for her life."
Elinor Fuchs, The View from the Stone
EMMA: Now you'll have to tell Julia and me all about Voltairine de Cleyre.
FEFU: You know all about Voltairine de Cleyre.
EMMA: I don't.
FEFU: I'll tell you at lunch.
Fefu and her Friends, 20
In 1889, Voltairine moved to Philadelphia, where she lived amongst the Jewish immigrant community. She continued to write essays and poetry, and delivered speeches to great reception from working-class and anarchist groups. In her work, she demanded economic independence for women, called for the end of preconceived roles according to gender, and blisteringly criticized the role of Church and State in the oppression of women. Her essay, “The Dominant Idea” also attacked the concept of materialism and called for “the dignity of an aim higher than the chase for wealth.” (Exquisite Rebel, 122) While she was staunchly opposed to the institution of marriage and motherhood, she valued love and had several romantic partnerships throughout her lifetime. Although she bore a son, she rejected the role of mother and when she refused to live with the child’s father, her son was taken out of her custody and she did not see him until he came of age seventeen years later.
Unlike other women’s movements at the time, the majority of which focused only on the minimum ask for the right of women to vote, Voltairine persistently and passionately advocated for the emancipation of women and the eradication of patriarchal tyranny. In her essay, “Sex Slavery,” she wrote “Why is my brain said not to be the equal of his brain? Why is my work not paid equally with his? Why must my body be controlled by my husband? Why may he take my children away from me? Will them away while yet unborn? Let every woman ask.” (Exquisite Rebel, 23) Her understanding of the construct of gender roles was far and away ahead of the mainstream feminist thought of her time period. She understood that childhood conditioning played a large part in the development and restrictions of women, and observed, “‘Oh! Men don’t care for home or children as women do!’ Why should they, when the deliberate effort of your life has been to crush that nature out of them. ‘Women can’t rough it like men.’ Train any animal, or any plant, as your train your girls, and it won’t be able to rough it either. Now will somebody tell me why either sex should hold a corner on athletic sports? Why any child should not have free use of its limbs?” (Exquisite Rebel, 235)
Voltairine de Cleyre suffered from ill health, depression, and poverty throughout her short life. It has been suggested that one of the reasons that her work and legacy is unknown may be due to her comparatively short life to that of fellow anarchists who lived longer, such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Of Voltairine de Cleyre, Emma Goldman would declare her “the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced.” (Exquisite Rebel, 29) Following her death, her work went out of print and interest would not resurface until over fifty years later, when renewed relevance of her work was discovered in conjunction with the reemergence of the Women’s Movement of the 1960s.
In 2018, the New York Times ran a posthumous obituary for Voltairine De Cleyre, stating that "Since 1851 obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With Overlooked, we're adding the stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported in The Times." Read the full article here.