Product Description

Candace Falk's biography captures Goldman's colorful life as a social and labor reformer, revolutionary, anarchist, feminist, agitator for free love and free speech, and advocate of birth control. And it gives the reader a rare glimpse into Goldman as a woman, alone, searching for the intimacy of a love relationship to match her radiant social vision. Falk explores the clash between Goldman's public vision and private life, focusing on her intimate relationship with Ben Reitman, Chicago's celebrated social reformer, hobo king, and red-light district gynecologist. During this passionate and stormy relationship, Goldman lectured in public about free love and women's independence, while in private she struggled with intense jealousy and longed for the comfort of a secure relationship. Falk's account draws upon a serendipitous discovery of a cache of intimate letters between Goldman and Reitman. Falk then goes beyond Goldman's ten-year relationship with Reitman, following Goldman's inner passions through her years of exile and later life. Written with a literary sensitivity, Falk tells a riveting story, consistently placing Goldman in the context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century radicalism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1081663 in Books
• Published on: 1990-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
"Fascinating... With marvelous clarity and depth, Candace Falk illuminates for us an Emma Goldman shaped by her time yet presaging in her life the situation and conflicts of women in our time." -- Tillie Olsen

"To read the sometimes sappy, often moving, ever scandalous love letters of Emma Goldman and her great passion Ben Reitman is to ride the roller coaster of True Romance. Candace Falk renders a valuable service by giving us plain the plain inside story of this intense ten-year affair." -- Alix Kates Shulman

"What this remarkable book does... is to remind us of that passion, that revolutionary fervor, that camaraderie, that persistence in the face of political defeat and personal despair so needed in or time as in theirs." -- Howard Zinn

"Wherever social and intellectual history is taught instructors will welcome this paperback edition... This is a notable biography of one of the twentieth century's most remarkable women." -- Merle Curti

From the Publisher
Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman was listed among the New York Times' Most Notable Biographies.

From the Back Cover
Candace Falk's biography captures Goldman's colorful life as a social and labor reformer, revolutionary, anarchist, feminist, agitator for free love and free speech, and advocate of birth control. And it gives the reader a rare glimpse into Goldman as a woman, alone, searching for the intimacy of a love relationship to match her radiant social vision. Falk explores the clash between Goldman's public vision and private life, focusing on her intimate relationship with Ben Reitman, Chicago's celebrated social reformer, hobo king, and redlight district gynecologist. During this passionate and stormy relationship, Goldman lectured in public about free love and women's independence, while in private she struggled with intense jealousy and longed for the comfort of a secure relationship.

Falk's account draws upon a serendipitous discovery of a cache of intimate letters between Goldman and Reitman. Falk then goes beyond Goldman's inner passions through her years of exile and later life. Written with literary sensitivity, Falk tells a riveting story, consistently placing Goldman in the context of late nineteenth - and early twentieth-century radicalism.

Customer Reviews

A Successful and Tasteful Biography
Candace Falk, the official biographer of EG, delivers a compelling and tactful account of EG's personal life and its conflicts versus her high standards for living that she lectured on.

Falk stumbled upon EG's letters to Reitman through a friend, and took it upon herself to edit and organize the letters into a kind, yet considerably objective biography. Falk addresses inconsistencies in life, love, and lecture without forcing a bias upon the reader. Though at times waxing over-poetic to the point of absurdity (which is understandable with the subject matter and quality of personal letters between Reitman and EG), Falk's "Mission Statement" of the book was to deliver to readers a biography and examination of the letters that is tasteful without hurting EG's image, and accomplished just that.

EG's life was a struggle of fighting for social justice, while frustrated with her own tendency to get stuck in the grains of tradition and feeling inadequate and unfulfilled (as in her relationship with Reitman). Falk skillfully shares the intimate details of EG's love life and blunders with the care of an adoring daughter. This book is well worth the read even with its occasional flaw (or in this edition, the proliferation of spelling errors towards the end of the book). Overall, Falk pays just respects to the Mother of Anarchism. Highly recommended.