The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-16

This volume brought out fin hand some style by the publishers gives op- portunity of becoming acquainted with stirner''s great work which will, no doubt, be appreciated by many. The translation is adequate in fact, is very thorough and the translator's preface should be read as well as the publishers preface and that of the late Dr. Walker. The publisher s preface presents much of interest bearing on the work of MT. stirner and is in full as follows: For more than twenty years have entertained the design of publishing an English translation of Der Enizige und sein Eigentum" When formed this design, the number of English speaking persons who had ever heard of the book was very limited. The memory of Max Stirner had been virt- ualiy extinct for an entire generation. But In the last two decades there has been remarkable revival of interest both in the book and in It's author. It began in this country with a discus sion in the pages of the Anarchist pe- riodical, Liberty" in which Stirner's thought was clearly expounded and vigorously championed by Dr. James l.. Walker, who adopted for this dis russion the pseudonym "Tak Kak." At that time Dr. Walker was the chief editorial writer for the Galveston News. Some years later he became. a practinng physician in Mexico, where he died in 1904 A series of es- says which he began in an Anarchist periodical, "Egoism,' and which he lived to complete, was published after his death in @ small volume, '"The Philosophy of Egoism." It Is a very able and convincing exposition of Stir ner's teachings, and almost the only one that exists in the English lan- guage. But the chief instrument in the revival of stlrnerism was and is the German poet, John Henry Mackey, Very early in his career he met Stir ners name in Lange's History of Materialisln," and was moved thereby to read his book. The york made such an impression on him that he resolved to devote portion of his life to the re- discovery and rehabilitation of the lost and forgotten genius. Through years of toll and correspondence and travel and triumphing over tremendous ob- stacles, he carried his task to comple- tion and his biography of Stirner ap- peared in Berlin in 1898. It is a tri- bute to the thoroughness of Maekeys work that since it's publication TO one important fac about Stirner has been discovered by anyone. During his wars of investigation Mackey'S ad- vertising for information has created a new interest in Stirner which was en- hanced by the sudden fame of the writings of Fredrich Niezsche, an au- thor whose intellectual kinship with Stirnsr has ieen Q subject of much controversy Der Einzige," previously obtainable only in an expensive form was included in Philipp Reclaim's Uni- versal Eibliotlleli, and this cheap edi- till has e to4t0 8 wide and eyer-in- creasing circulation During the last dozen years the book has been trans- lated twice into French, one into Ital- ian, once into Russian and possibly into other languages The Scandina- vian critic, Brandes has written on stirner. A large and anrreciative VOL tune entitled 'Individualisme An archiste: Max Stirner," from the pen of Prof, Victor Basch, of the Univer- sity of Rennes, has appeared in Paris, Another large and sympathetic v1!lnie Max Stirner,' written by Dr. Anselm hoS
 gently in Berlin. Dr. Paul Eltzbacher in his work, Der Anarchismus, gives a chapter to Stirner, making him one of the seven typical Anarchists, be- ginning with William Goodwin aud ending with Tolstoi, of whom his book treats. There is hardly notable magazine or a review on the contin- ent that has not given at least one leading article of Stirner, Upon the initiative of Mackey and with the aid of other admirers a suitable stone has been placed above the philosophers previously neglected grave, and a memorial tablet upon the house in Berlin where he died in 1856, and this spring another is to be placed upon the house in Bayreuth, where he was born in 1806 As result of these various efforts and though but little has been written about Stirner in the English language his name is now known at least to thousands in America and England where formerly it was known only to hundreds. Therefore conditions are now more favorable for the recep- tion of this volume than they were when l formed the design of publish ing it, more than twenty years ago.
 The problem of securing a reasonably good translation (for in the case of a work presenting difficulties so enorn- Ous 1t was idle to hope for an adequate translattor) was finally solved by en- trusting the task to Stephen T. Ewing ton, scholar of remarkable attain ments, whose speciality Is philology and who is also one of the ablest workers in the propaganda of Anarch- ism But from further security from error, 1t was agreed with MT. Bying- ton that his translati m should have the benefit of revision by pr. Walker the most thorough American student of Stirner, and by Emma Heller schumm and George Schumm who are not only sympathetic with Stirner, but familiar with the history of his time and who enjoy a knowledge of Eng fish and German that makes it difficult to decide which Is their rative tongue " It was also agreed that, upon any point of difference between the trans iator and his revisers which consulta- tion might fail to solve, the publish. n,., zl,o,,1d