Part 1 (1/2)

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist

by Alexander Berkman

AS INTRODUCTORY

I wish that everybody in the world would read this book And my reasons are not due to any desire on roup of social philosophers or revolutionists I desire that the book be widely read because the general and careful reading of it would definitely add to true civilization

It is a contribution to the writings which pro reasons:

It is a hu to be sincere More than that, it is a valuable thing To be so, means unusual qualities of the heart and of the head; unusual qualities of character The books that possess this quality are unusual books There are not s that are markedly sincere; there are not many direct human documents This is one of these few books

Not only has this book the interest of the hu proof of the power of the human soul Alexander Berkman spent fourteen years in prison; under perhaps more than commonly harsh and severe conditions Prison life tends to destroy the body, weaken the led with these adverse, destructive conditions He took care of his body He took care of his mind He did so strenuously It was ato take possession of him Insanity is a natural result of prison life It always tends to coainst it, and overcame it That the prison affected him is true It always does But he saved himself, essentially

Society tried to destroy him, but failed

If people will read this book carefully it will tend to do aith prisons The public, once vividly conscious of what prison life is andto oes deeply into the corrupting, dey of prison life It shows, in picture after picture, sketch after sketch, not only the obvious brutality, stupidity, ugliness perood qualities and instincts of the hu for life; beautiful tendencies basely expressing theh it all; idealistic, courageous, unco, sincere, truthful; not untouched, as I have said, by his surroundings, but re his essential self

What lessons there are in this book! Like all truthful documents it makes us love and hate our fellow men, doubt ourselves, doubt our society, tends to make us take a strenuous, serious attitude towards life, and not be too quick to judge, without going into a situation painfully, carefully It tends to complicate the present simplicity of our moral attitudes It tends to make us more mature

The above are the main reasons why I should like to have everybody read this book

But there are other aspects of the book which are interesting and valuable in a more special, more limited way; aspects in which only comparatively few persons will be interested, and which will arouse the opposition and hostility of in of Berkman, his Anarchistic experience in America, his attempt on the life of Frick--an attempt made at a violent industrial crisis, an attempt made as a result of a sincere if fanatical belief that he was called on by his destiny to strike a psychological blow for the oppressed of the coreement and disapproval of his ideas and his act But I see no reason why this, with the rest, should not rather be regarded as an integral part of a human document, as part of the record of a life, with its social and psychological suggestions and explanations Why not try to understand an honest man even if he feels called on to kill? There, too, it may be deeply instructive There, too, it has its lessons Read it not in a coree, of course, but read to see

HUTCHINS HAPGOOD

PART I

THE AWAKENING AND ITS TOLL

CHAPTER I

THE CALL OF HOMESTEAD

I

Clearly every detail of that day is engraved onin the back of our little flat--Fedya and I--when suddenly the Girl enters Her naturally quick, energetic step sounds more than usually resolute As I turn to her, I ahtened color

”Have you read it?” she cries, waving the half-open newspaper