Commemoration of Voltairine de Cleyre  

November 17, 1866- Jone 20, 1912

Emma Goldman called her "the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced." The legacy of Voltairine de Cleyre continues to inspire people to this day.

VDC'S COLLEAGUES:

VDC "..was born in some obscure town in the state of Michigan, and who lived in poverty all her life, but who by sheer force of will pulled herself out of a living grave, cleared her mind of superstition —turned her face to the sun, perceived a great ideal and determinedly carried it to every corner of her native land...The American soil sometimes does bring forth exquisite plants" — Emma Goldman

"Her voice has a vibrant and somber quality that, so far as I know, is unique in literature. Crimson as blood, black as hate, are some of her utterances. Night birds, flap their wings, 'the whipped sea shivers,' and the wind roars from the depths of the sea in the ghostly visions she evokes.'" —Leonard Abbott, in speaking of Voltairine's poetry.

"Voltairine, I am pleased to have been your friend and comrade, for you are the bravest, truest, and sweetest woman that ever lived. You need no stone nor funeral bell; you are tombed in the true hearts that loved you well." —Will Duff

CONTEMPORARY WRITERS

"...her memory possesses the glow of legend..." — Paul Avrich, her biographer

"The life and work of Voltairine de Cleyre along with the lessons that we can learn from her example challenge and inspire us to keep organizing, theorizing, and dreaming of a liberatory society based on the principles of cooperation, mutual aid, egalitarianism, and anarchist feminism." — Cris Crass

"Voltairine and the 19th century anarchist feminists, unlike most feminists today, never failed to understand that the State is inherently hierarchical and authoritarian. The recognition that the State is the enemy of women is the political legacy of Voltairine de Cleyre and the questioning of the authority relationship in traditional marriage and the insistence on individual autonomy of women is her social and psychological legacy. It is a legacy that deserves to be both read and seriously explored." — Sharon Presley, co-editor Exquisite Rebel

"The fact that, nearly a hundred years after her untimely death, Voltairine de Cleyre should have a full-length biography devoted to her (though, alas, it is currently out of print) and at least three annotated collections of her work vying for readers' attention, suggests that she may have already achieved a degree of immortality never realized by most of her fellow intellectuals." — Jeff Riggenbach

FANS ON FACEBOOK PAGE FOR VOLTAIRINE

Monica Morales Moreno: Inspiring talent and energy largely unrecognised.

Emmanuel Petit: En ce moment en France, nous mettons en oeuvre les enseignements de Voltairine de Cleyre ! Vive l'action directe ! [eds. translation: At this moment in France, we are putting the teachings of Voltairine de Cleyre to work. Long live direct action.]

Ryan Andrew Murphy: Voltairine's poetic eloquence and intellectual honesty are inspirational in themselves, but even more so when contrasted with the shallow, artless dogmatism and demagoguery that are, sadly, typical of anarchist 'literature' today... We need her now more than ever.

Comments on the anniversary of her death (June, 2010):

Pauly Habit: I can't say what exactly she means to me but things that come across from her writing to me are emphasis' on feeling and validations of that feeling heart; that a genuinely free life is not only free but livelier!
If we wanted to tack 'sainthood' to her memorial we could canonize her matron to anarchists, but then we could consider Malatesta to patron.
I wonder if we'll be able to remember todays activists a hundred years from now like we do today with all with all our saints now.
And yes De Cleyre was beautiful and she was striking in the eyes.

Peter McGuinness: What a remarkable woman she was. She provides an interesting example of how an Anarchists thought must grow and develop through the practice of Anarchism.

Arthur Walmsley: She was a saint in all but name.

LINKS

Link to bio