Selected Essays by Voltairine de Cleyre provides readers with a fascinating insight into the life and beliefs of this influential anarchist and feminist thinker. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from individualism and religion to women's rights and labor struggles. De Cleyre's writing is thought-provoking and emotive, drawing the reader in with her eloquent prose and passionate arguments.

What makes this collection stand out is the way in which de Cleyre is able to connect these seemingly disparate topics, weaving them together into a coherent and compelling worldview. Her essays are both intellectual and emotional, as she draws on her own experiences to illustrate her points and make her arguments more relatable.

Overall, Selected Essays is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of anarchism or feminist thought. De Cleyre's insights are as relevant today as they were when she first wrote them, and her eloquent prose makes for a captivating read.

Book Description:

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) was, according to Emma Goldman, “the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced.” Today she is not widely known as a consequence of her short life. De Cleyre was especially influenced by Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and Clarence Darrow. After the hanging of the Haymarket protesters in 1887, she became an anarchist. “Till then I believed in the essential justice of the American law of trial by jury,” she wrote in an autobiographical essay, “After that I never could”. She was known as an excellent speaker and writer – in the opinion of biographer Paul Avrich, she was “a greater literary talent than any other American anarchist” – and as a tireless advocate for the anarchist cause, whose “religious zeal,” according to Goldman, “stamped everything she did.”