page_title: Individualist anarchism in France
section_title: Late 19th century and early 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Individualist anarchism in France / Late 19th century and early 20th century
caption_attribution_description: l'anarchie, 3 janvier 1907
context_page_description: Individualist anarchism in France has developed a line of thought that starts from the pioneering activism and writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Anselme Bellegarrigue in the mid 19th century. In the early 20th century it produced publications such as L'EnDehors, L'Anarchie and around its principles it found writers and activists such as Emile Armand, Han Ryner, Henri Zisly, Albert Libertad and Zo d'Axa. In the post-war years there appeared the publication L'Unique and activist writers such as Charles-Auguste Bontemps. In contemporary times it has found a new expression in the writings of the prolific philosopher Michel Onfray.
  Individualist anarchism refers to several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and his or her will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. French individualist anarchism was characterized by an eclectic set of currents of thought and practices which included freethought, naturism, free love, anti-militarism and illegalism.
context_section_description: Jean-Baptiste Louiche, Charles Schæffer and Georges Deherme edited the individualist anarchist publication Autonomie Individuelle that ran from 1887 to 1888.
  Intellectuals such as Albert Libertad, André Lorulot, Emile Armand, Victor Serge under the pseudonym "Le Retif", Zo d'Axa and Rirette Maitrejean extended the theory in France's main individualist anarchist journal, L'Anarchie in 1905 and later in EnDehors. Outside this journal, Han Ryner wrote Petit Manuel individualiste (1903).
  Henri Zisly, Emile Gravelle and Georges Butaud promoted anarchist naturism. Butaud was an individualist "partisan of the milieux libres, publishing Flambeau ("an enemy of authority") in 1901 in Vienna. He focused on creating and participating in anarchist colonies.
  "In this sense, the theoretical positions and the vital experiences of french individualism are deeply iconoclastic and scandalous, even within libertarian circles. The call of nudist naturism, the strong defense of birth control methods, the idea of "unions of egoists" with the sole justification of sexual practices, that will try to put in practice, not without difficulties, will establish a way of thought and action, and will result in sympathy within some, and a strong rejection within others."
caption: L'Anarchie, January 3, 1907
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