Emma Goldman, pioneer feminist and anarchist

1869 Emma Goldman (d. May 14, 1940), Lithuanian-born American anarchist-feminist writer, pioneer advocate of free love and contraception, and activist, who was deported to the Soviet Union for inciting World War I draft riots in New York.

Outspoken birth control advocate and champion of women's rights, Goldman wrote My Disillusionment in Russia; Anarchism & Other Essays; The Place of the Individual in Society.

In 1907, according to Goldman's autobiography, Living My Life, Melbourne anarchist Chummy Fleming (1863 - 1950) invited her to tour Australia and Australian anarchists had raised money for her fare. In 1908 she made preparations to go (she was to embark on the Makura at Vancouver on March 26, 1909), and 1,500 pounds of literature was despatched ahead. In April, Fleming wrote in the Melbourne Socialist that she had embarked, believing it to be so, but events had intervened, including police harassment and the US immigration department organising her deportation, but also a fit of jealousy over her lover, Dr Ben Reitman, whose promiscuity, despite her ideology, she was finding a challenge ...

See also Early progressives in the Book of Days

Tagged: anarchism, feminism, biography, radical-history, labor-history