Mackay’s posthumously published final novel brings us another memorable character in Ludwig Behrendt. Although a successful businessman, he is haunted by a youthful indiscretion until the... More > unexpected arrival of a visitor from his past brings about drastic changes in his life.
The novel illustrates, both negatively and positively, ideas of the 19th century German philosopher Max Stirner. But in all the challenges Behrendt has to face, he remains a believable personality whose strength is also his weakness. For admirers of Stirner this novel is a must read. But its many literary levels can be enjoyed by all. It is a fascinating blend of story-telling and philosophy brought to life.< Less
Mackay’s final, posthumously published novel brings us another memorable character in Ludwig Behrendt. Although a successful businessman, he is haunted by a youthful indiscretion until the... More > unexpected arrival of a visitor from his past brings about drastic changes in his life.
The novel illustrates, both negatively and positively, ideas of the 19th century German philosopher Max Stirner. But in all the challenges Behrendt has to face, he remains a believable personality whose strength is also his weakness. For admirers of Stirner this novel is a must read. But its many literary levels can be enjoyed by all. It is a fascinating blend of story-telling and philosophy brought to life.< Less
Reading Gay History is a selection of essays and book reviews written over the past quarter century that were originally published in various popular and scholarly journals. The essays are mostly... More > biographical. They, and the book reviews, reflect the author’s research and interest in figures from the “gay liberation” movement, especially in Germany, from the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century.< Less
This is the frank, unvarnished biography of an unlikely polymath. Alas, the story ends just as his life begins to show promise. But what is here is surprisingly entertaining, with intriguing hints of... More > what-might-have-been. In it we see the well-known progression from an idealistic youth through painful frustrations to a realistic maturity—in this case ending with the dawning of a final satisfying egoism. There are numerous illustrations.< Less
Auf keinem Gebiet des sozialen Lebens herrscht heute eine heillosere Verworrenheit, eine naivere Oberflächlichkeit, eine gefahrdrohendere Unkenntnis, als auf dem des Anarchismus. Das Wort an und... More > für sich wirkt bereits wie das Schwenken eines roten Tuches – in blinder Wut stürzen die meisten darauf los, ohne sich Zeit zu ruhiger Prüfung und Überlegung zu lassen. Sie werden auch dieses Werk zerfetzen, ohne es verstanden zu haben. Mich werden ihre Stöße nicht treffen. —
London und die Ereignisse des Spätjahres 1887 haben mir als Hintergrund meines Gemäldes gedient.
John Henry Mackay
Mackays berühmtestes Werk!
„DIE ANARCHISTEN sind eines der konsequentesten radikalen Bücher, die jemals geschrieben wurden.“
Liberty, Boston< Less
This two-part story, The Last Duty (1893) and Albert Schnell’s Downfall (1895), an early work of John Henry Mackay, is influenced by the literary movement of naturalism, but remains uniquely... More > Mackay. The central character Albert Schnell illustrates, in a negative way, Mackay’s philosophy of individualist anarchism, while remaining a genuine, recognizable human being, not a mere symbol. The first part, in a tour de force of writing, is a story without a plot — as Mackay tells us in its subtitle. It describes three days in the life of a man who, essentially, has no life. Yet Mackay makes us care for the hopeless little man. Indeed, there is no hope for him, as soon becomes clear in the second part of the story. Schnell has absorbed all the “virtues” of his hypocritical society, and they work against him. Ironically Schnell does know what he must do to resist his fate, but he is prevented by his own weakness and the power his illusory world has over him. His downfall becomes inevitable.< Less
The novel Fenny Skaller is based on the author’s own life and tells the story of a boy-lover becoming aware of his own special kind of love. It was first published in Germany in 1913, but a... More > century later we can still feel in it the force of this love, for it is related by a master storyteller who was at the same time a fighter for his love – and his times were not so different from ours. Banned by the authorities when it was first published and burned by the Nazis, Fenny Skaller is still censored today by those who would try to prevent us from gaining a genuine knowledge of this love, for Mackay’s insights become ours as we read this fascinating page-turner. It is a moving story that grips us by its emotion and convinces by its authenticity.< Less
First published in 1980 (with an Italian translation in 1983) Peano: Life and Works of Giuseppe Peano has remained the standard biography of this great mathematician of the late 19th century. In... More > addition to his mathematics, the book also discusses Peano’s role in the international auxiliary language movement. Long out of print, this corrected Definitive Edition (2006) makes it available once more in an attractive, low-priced edition that also includes numerous illustrations.< Less
John Henry Mackays „Geschichte in zweien“ Die letzte Pflicht (1893) und Albert Schnells Untergang (1895) ist der literarischen Bewegung des Naturalismus verpflichtet und zugleich ein... More > charakteristisches Stück Mackayscher Prosa. Als negatives Beispiel illustriert der pommersche Dorfschullehrer Albert Schnell Mackays Philosphie eines individualistischen Anarchismus und wird zugleich als ein Mensch in seiner Eigenart lebendig. Der erste Teil, eine „Geschichte ohne Handlung“, schildert eindringlich zwei Tage im Leben eines Mannes, der eigentlich gar kein Leben lebt. Mackay läßt den Leser mitfühlen mit diesem unbedeutenden Mann, für den es keine Hoffnung gibt. Dies wird besonders deutlich im zweiten Teil der Geschichte. Schnell hat alle „Tugenden“ einer verlogenen Gesellschaft verinnerlicht und muß erleben, wie diese Tugenden sich gegen ihn wenden. Er weiß, wie er sich seinem Schicksal entgegenstellen könnte, doch seine Schwäche hindert ihn daran. Sein Untergang wird unausweichlich.< Less
This is a volume of selected essays discussing publications by the German writer John Henry Mackay (1864-1933), poet, novelist, anarchist, and boy-lover.
Hubert Kennedy, PhD, (born 1931) was Professor of Mathematics at Providence College (Rhode Island), where his research interest was the history of mathematics. He moved to San Francisco in 1986 to continue his historical research in the beginnings of the gay movement in Germany. Since 2003 he has been in a home for assisted living in Concord, California, where he continues to bring the writings of the German anarchist writer John Henry Mackay back into print. In addition to his interest in Mackay, Kennedy has written biographies of the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano and the German homosexual emancipationist/theorist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs.
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