New pamphlet: George Brown, the cobbler anarchist of Philadelphia By Robert P. Helms

north america / mexico | history of anarchism | press release Wednesday October 04, 2006 17:51 by KSL - Kate Sharpley Library

The Kate Sharpley Library are please to announce the publication of a new pamphlet examining the life of George Brown (1858-1915), Philadelphia anarchist activist. Robert P. Helms traces the life of this anarchist shoemaker from freethinking Northamptonshire to Philadelphia's burgeoning anarchist movement of the 1890s. Never famous, and only occasionally infamous, Brown was typical of many of the militants who made the movement what it was, and his story sheds a fascinating light on the microcosm of a social movement.

George Brown, the cobbler anarchist of Philadelphia
By Robert P. Helms
Leafing through newscuttings, letters and memoirs Helms has restored Brown's life and activism to view. But this biograpy does more than restore the name of one militant. Never a 'leading light', Brown's story highlights the activities of the grassroots anarchists of Philadelphia (like Brown and his partner and comrade Mary Hansen); the views and divisions of anarchists on sexual liberation at the turn of the twentieth century and fractious debates within the Arden Single-Tax colony.

'The closer we examine this particular anarchist, the more he is his own unique self, the more fiercely determined he remains. He was somewhat wily, could be a bit pig-headed, but never for a selfish reason, never in a way that indicated even the slightest corruption. As yet another traveling anarchist noted in 1900, George's "whole soul is in the cause. He is a most genial companion, with a warm, human heart, but rigidly uncompromising in his devotion to anarchist principles."*'
*James F. Morton Jr. "Across the Continent III" Free Society, April 8, 1900

Robert P. Helms is a writer, historian & editor of the 'deadanarchists.org' website, an excellent collection of anarchist history, (mainly related to Philadelphia.)
www.deadanarchists.org
The Kate Sharpley Library is dedicated to preserving, researching and restoring the history of anarchism and the anarchist movement and regularly publishes information on lost areas of anarchist history.
www.katesharpleylibrary.net

George Brown, the cobbler anarchist of Philadelphia By Robert P. Helms
Sixty page pamphlet, illustrated.
ISBN-13: 9781873605349 ISBN-10: 187360534X
Anarchist library series, number 17.
Price £3 (orders to London address) or $5 (Berkeley address)

Available direct from the publisher:
Kate Sharpley Library, BM Hurricane, London, WC1N 3XX
Kate Sharpley Library, PMB 820, 2425 Channing Way, Berkeley CA 94704, USA
www.katesharpleylibrary.net
or from good bookshops.