Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854-1939) was the publisher of the anarchist publication Liberty from 1881 to 1908, and The Radical Review, 1877 and 1878; owner of the Unique Bookshop in New York City; specialist in and translator of Pierre Joseph...
more
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854-1939) was the publisher of the anarchist publication Liberty from 1881 to 1908, and The Radical Review, 1877 and 1878; owner of the Unique Bookshop in New York City; specialist in and translator of Pierre Joseph Proudhon; and publisher of works considered radical at the time, such as Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata, and Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol. After his bookstore was destroyed by fire in 1908, Tucker moved to France and lived there until his death. Collection consists of correspondence, business and personal records, manuscripts of Tucker's translations from Proudhon, scrapbooks, photographs, material concerning his relationship with Victoria Claflin Woodhull, and anarchist books, periodicals and pamphlets. Correspondence, some of which is in French, dates from ca. 1866 to 1950. Tucker's correspondents were friends, political colleagues, readers of Liberty, and representatives of journals, publishing houses, and various organizations. Miscellaneous papers, 1870s-1930s, include records of the Unique Bookshop, of Liberty and The Radical Review, and of Tucker's activities as a book publisher; photographs (chiefly cabinet card and carte de visite portraits) of radicals and others, notably major European cultural figures; biographical miscellany of a variety of political and cultural figures; manuscript of Tucker's autobiography; and autobiographical file with correspondence, notes, essays, and other personal papers. Scrapbooks, 1870s-1930s, contain clippings of articles on political, literary and other topics. Also, large group of anarchist books, periodicals and pamphlets, 1860s-1970s, in various languages; some engineering books; books and pamphlets published by Oriole Press; and books and other printed materials on medical matters.
less