Kelly, Harry

KELLY, HARRY (1871–1953). As an editor and contributor to several anarchist journals who also sought to realize anarchism in educational and communal experiments, Henry May Kelly (known as “Harry”) was a leading American anarchist from the 1890s until his death. Born in Saint Charles, Missouri, Kelly was self-educated and became a printer by trade; later, he sold printing equipment. Introduced to anarchism by the lecturer Charles W. Mowbray in 1894, Kelly quickly became enmeshed in the anarchist movement as an organizer and writer for anarchist publications. With Mowbray and others he edited the Boston communist anarchist monthly The Rebel (1895–1896), and the following year published The Match (1896) with George E. Miller. In 1898 Kelly traveled to England, where he lived for several years and worked closely with Peter Kropotkin, Enrico Malatesta, Louise Michel, and Rudolf Rocker. Kelly returned to the United States in 1904, and continued to be prominent in anarchist ranks. Close to Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, Kelly became a frequent contributor to the influential anarchist journal Mother Earth.

Kelly distinguished himself through his efforts to bridge anarchist politics with cultural and educational radicalism. He helped to establish the Francisco Ferrer Association in New York in 1910, which created a cultural center and spawned the Ferrer Modern School the following year. In 1915 the association formed the Ferrer Colony in Stelton, New Jersey, to further the cause of progressive education and build a new society through the unified efforts of intellectuals and the working class. Despite rivalries among leaders and educators, as well as factionalism between anarchists and communists, the Stelton Modern School survived until 1953. In 1919 Kelly published the journal Freedom, a Journal of Constructive Anarchism in New York. Kelly also helped to found two other colonies in New York in the 1920s, the Mohegan Colony near Peekskill and Mount Airy in Harmon.

Kelly’s commitment to radical beliefs took him outside anarchist circles. In 1920 with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Roger Baldwin, Kelly created the League for Mutual Aid, which gave financial assistance to victims of the Red Scare and later to those associated with labor and libertarian concerns. Harry Kelly retired to New Rochelle, New York, and died in 1953.

Avrich, Paul. The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Avrich, Paul, Anarchist Collection. Library of Congress. Finding Aid. https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/findaid/avrich03012018.html

Kelly, Harry. “Roll Back the Years: Odyssey of a Libertarian.” John Nicholas Beffel Collection, Tamiment Library, New York University. http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_055/

McKinley, Blaine. “The Quagmires of Necessity: American Anarchists and Dilemmas of Vocation.” American Quarterly 34 (Winter 1982).

Veysey, Laurence. The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth-Century America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.