LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

30676

Emma Goldman Typed Letter Signed; 1916

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:750.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,500.00 USD
Emma Goldman Typed Letter Signed; 1916
<B>Emma Goldman Typed Letter Signed in full.</B></I> Two pages, 8.5" x 11" on Mother Earth Publishing Association letterhead, New York, New York, May 18, 1916, with one autograph emendation to Margaret Deland, an American novelist, criticizing her efforts to gather support from American authors to support allied soldiers in France as hypocritical. Goldman writes, in part "<I>...I appreciate your devotion in behalf of these victims of the blood stained war in Europe, but I find it rather inconsistent on your part...to do so much for them when there are any number of real soldiers of liberty in the United States. It is true that they are not killed off at once in the trenches and the battle field, but they die nevertheless by the scores in the economic war which is going on in the United States...Thirty million American people...are in a semi-state of starvation...I see no one of those who make large fortunes by their pen, ready to come to the rescue of these thirty million victims. ...you and those connected with you go on doing charity in China (in the instance of your appeal it happens to be France) while you are utterly indifferent to the needs of the people of America...those who are willing to see behind the scenes, know as well as I that not a single principle of human liberty is involved on the European war. Nothing but the desire for military conquest and material aggrendisement </B></I> <I>sic</B></I> <I> on the part of the governments and the stupid creduelty </B></I> <I>sic</B></I> <I> of the masses are back of the war...</B></I>" Goldman's rhetoric became a liability once the United States entered the war. A nervous government reprimanded and deported suspected "reds" and other "subversives”, including Goldman. Even in 1915 she anticipated trouble and admitted "<I>I suppose I will lay myself open to the silly accusation that I favor Germany because I repudiate utterly the idea that the solder's now 'lying wounded in France' have fought for liberty...</B></I>" Her prediction was correct. At the close of the war in 1919, she and other radicals were caught up in the Palmer Raids and she was deported to Russia. This provides a revealing look into the conflicts within the American left in the first decades of the twentieth century. Very good condition with usual folds. Quite scarce as having real insight and content. <I>Ex. Henry E. Luhrs Collection.</B></I><BR><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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