Emma Goldman Still Dangerous

Emma Goldman's reputation during her lifetime was in part created by her incorrectly assumed connection with the assassination of President Mc Kinley, and by a young ambitious J. Edgar Hoover. By 1919, the soon to be deported Goldman was known as "the most dangerous woman in America." After her death in 1940 it has been her biographers who have continued expanding Goldman's reputation, seeing her as "heroic" and "iconic," some have even gone so far as to describe her as a "cult figure."

All modern work on Goldman has included major references to her autobiography, Living My Life, this book re-examines the creation of this autobiography, first practically noting just how many other people were involved in creating this project: Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie provided the blue print for the beginning of Goldman's story, Demi Coleman, as Goldman' secretary was a major part of the daily writing process, while Alexander Berkman was not just influential as an editor of her work, he was also instrumental in insuring his anarchist agenda was followed. These people are vital as Goldman's work needs to be seen not as an autobiography, and objective historical tool, but instead as a much influenced and highly censored source. It was another creation of Goldman.

To achieve a closer look at the many created versions of Goldman, this book uses visual and written sources to identify how Goldman was shown to the American public and to see literally how these images softened and changed over the years.


Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The Most Dangerous Woman in America

Chapter One: Emma Goldman: Her Lifetime's Reputation

Chapter Two: Written Accounts: Veiled and Silences

Chapter Three: A Posthumous Reputation: A Non-Violent Story

Chapter Four: Writing Her American Life Story

Chapter Five: Sex and Sexuality: The Silenced Skein

Conclusion: Goldman Unearthed?

Goldman and Berkman Postscript

Bibliography