Tucker, Benjamin R.

TUCKER, BENJAMIN R. (1854–1939). An individualist anarchist, Benjamin R. Tucker was a man of intellect rather than of action, focusing on the development of his ideas and on the publication of books and journals, especially the journal Liberty (1881–1908). Introduced to anarchism, labor reform, and free love by Ezra Heywood in Massachusetts, Tucker was particularly influenced by two individualist anarchists, Josiah Warren and William B. Greene. Tucker summarized his philosophy in this manner: “The Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats. They believe that ‘the best government is that which governs least,’ and that which governs least is no government at all.” Besides publishing the writings of the leading individualist anarchists and many other radicals, Liberty was probably the earliest American magazine to publish Nietzsche and George Bernard Shaw.

Besides Liberty, Tucker operated an ambitious book-publishing program, often printing books first serialized in the journal. He translated into English and published the principal works, including What Is Property?, of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the first writer in any language to describe himself as an anarchist. He also translated and published Bakunin’s God and the State, Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done?, and Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata. He published Max Stirner’s The Ego and His Own, as well as works by Oscar Wilde, Herbert Spencer, Emile Zola, John Henry Mackay, and many others. After a disastrous fire in New York City in 1908 destroyed his warehouse and Unique Book Shop, Tucker left the United States for France, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Coughlin, Michael, Charles Hamilton, and Mark Sullivan, eds. Benjamin R. Tucker and the Champions of Liberty: A Centenary Anthology. Saint Paul: Coughlin Publications, 1987.

Liberty, 1881–1908, a hardcover reprint of the full run, with an introduction by Herbert Gutman. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970.

Martin, James J. Men against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Myles Publishers, 1970.

McElroy, Wendy, ed. Liberty, 1881–1908: A Comprehensive Index. Saint Paul: Coughlin Publications, 1982.

Reichert, William O. Partisans of Freedom: A Study in American Anarchism. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1976.