Selected Works of Voltairine De Cleyre: Poems, Essays, Sketches and Stories, 188

Voltairine de Cleyre was undeniably one of the most important anarchist thinkers in the US or anywhere else. Historian Paul Avrich considered her a greater literary talent than any other American anarchist’ and, moreover, a woman whose whole life was a revolt against this system of male domination which, like every form of tyranny and exploitation, ran contrary to her anarchistic spirit. Plagued by poverty and poor health – and a nearly successful assassination attempt – she maintained an intense schedule of writing, speaking, and organising for much of her life. Widely admired by her contemporaries, including many political enemies, she was one of the foremost advocates of an inclusive anarchism without adjectives, while at the same time advancing an uncompromising and principled direct-action approach to political and economic struggle.