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Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist
"A book of rare power and beauty, majestic in its structure, filled with the truth of imagination and the truth of actuality, emphatic in its declarations and noble in its reach."—Bayard Boyesen, Mother Earth . "No other book discusses so frankly the criminal ways of the closed prison society."— Kenneth Rexroth In 1892, Alexander Berkman tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick for the latter's role in violently suppressing the Homestead Steel Strike. Berkman's attempt was unsuccessful. Berkman spent the next fourteen years in Pennsylvania's Western Penitentiary. Upon release, he wrote what was to become a classic of prison literature, and a profound testament to human courage in the face of oppression. This new edition of his account of those years is introduced and fully annotated by Barry Pateman and Jessica Moran, both former associate editors of the Emma Goldman Papers at the University of California Berkeley. Their efforts make this the definitive version of Berkman's tale of his transformation within prison, his growing sympathy for those he'd considered social parasites, and the intimate relationships he developed with them. Also includes never-before-published facsimile reprints and transcriptions of the diary Berkman kept while he wrote this book, conveying the difficulties he had reliving his experiences. Alexander Berkman (1870–1936) was a leading writer and militant in the anarchist movement and author of the classic primer What is Anarchism? Barry Pateman was associate editor of Emma A Documentary History , and editor of Chomsky on Anarchism . He is a historian and member of the Kate Sharpley Library collective. Jessica Moran , was an assistant editor of Emma A Documentary History . She is a member of the Kate Sharpley Library collective and is an archivist currently living and working in New Zealand.
550 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
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About the author
Alexander Berkman
70 books107 followersAlexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century.
Berkman was born in Vilna in the Russian Empire (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) and emigrated to the United States in 1888. He lived in New York City, where he became involved in the anarchist movement. He was the lover and lifelong friend of anarchist Emma Goldman. In 1892, Alexander Berkman tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick for his role in violently suppressing the Homestead Steel Strike for which he served 14 years in prison. His experience in prison was the basis for his first book, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.
After his release from prison, Berkman served as editor of Goldman's anarchist journal, Mother Earth, and he established his own journal, The Blast. In 1917, Berkman and Goldman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiracy against the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with hundreds of others—and deported to Russia. Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Berkman soon voiced his opposition to the Soviet's use of terror after seizing power and their repression of fellow revolutionaries. In 1925, he published a book about his experiences, The Bolshevik Myth.
While living in France, Berkman continued his work in support of the anarchist movement, producing the classic exposition of anarchist principles, Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism. Suffering from ill health, Berkman committed suicide in 1936.
More: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldman/...
http://www.nndb.com/people/137/000165...
Berkman was born in Vilna in the Russian Empire (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) and emigrated to the United States in 1888. He lived in New York City, where he became involved in the anarchist movement. He was the lover and lifelong friend of anarchist Emma Goldman. In 1892, Alexander Berkman tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick for his role in violently suppressing the Homestead Steel Strike for which he served 14 years in prison. His experience in prison was the basis for his first book, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.
After his release from prison, Berkman served as editor of Goldman's anarchist journal, Mother Earth, and he established his own journal, The Blast. In 1917, Berkman and Goldman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiracy against the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with hundreds of others—and deported to Russia. Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Berkman soon voiced his opposition to the Soviet's use of terror after seizing power and their repression of fellow revolutionaries. In 1925, he published a book about his experiences, The Bolshevik Myth.
While living in France, Berkman continued his work in support of the anarchist movement, producing the classic exposition of anarchist principles, Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism. Suffering from ill health, Berkman committed suicide in 1936.
More: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldman/...
http://www.nndb.com/people/137/000165...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
November 2, 2011
The punishment is certainly cruel and unusual in Prison Memoirs. The guards arbitrarily beat, torture, and starve the inmates, including Alexander Berkman—one of the marquee names of early twentieth-century American anarchism. Okay, I take that back. There was only one marquee name of American anarchism, and that was Emma Goldman, but Berkman was (fortunately enough) fucking her so he basked in her white-hot afterglow. Berkman is sent to a Pennsylvania penitentiary for a ridiculously botched attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick, one of Andrew Carnegie's designated henchmen who violently brought down a labor strike with the aid of some Pinkertons. (The very same Frick—i.e., one of the most ruthless and immoral businessmen in history—is the the benefactor responsible for the Frick Collection in New York City.) At the outset, when Berkman first arrives in prison, with his pie-in-the-sky idealism still intact, he is an unbearable prig. He rambles on in the bloated, grandiose, and condescending manner of doctrinaire radicals. You know the drill. Individualism is a naughty bourgeois predilection; ergo, Berkman is resigned to being an instrumental atom in the organism of organized labor. Gee, that sounds like fun, doesn't it? You know what bugs me about this worldview (in common with the extreme left)? Well, I'll tell you. Even though these people are atheist, they are quite willing to neutralize themselves and tender their lives for some distant, theoretical posterity. My rebuttal is this: (1) Life will always suck. Always. There has been and will be no golden age when people cooperate and love one another and work for a common good. This is antithetical to the nature of humanity. Human beings are rotten lowlifes who want to dominate and oppress each other. Anyone who believes otherwise, at least in a broad sociopolitical sense, is embarrassingly naive. (2) What are these people surrendering their lives for exactly? Is it for future generations of people who then must surrender their lives for some ever-receding ideal? At the beginning of Prison Memoirs, Berkman is a pompous blowhard who disdains disruptive emotional connections with other human beings; he prefers some ascetic, boring, fully intellectualized idealism. It's not even idealism informed by (truly felt) compassion! It's just ideas. Thoughts. Words on paper. Isn't this a parallel dehumanizing force (to that of 'wage slavery')? For fuck's sake, if I have to live on this shitty planet, I want to have some fun while I'm here. I'm not chucking my life in the metaphysical recycling bin for an ideal that is religious in every sense but in advocating a God. Piss off, radicals. Maybe that makes me horribly bourgeois, but if this is all there is, I'm gonna try to live a good life, sure, but I'm also going to try to enjoy it—not as a cog in the machinery, but as an individual. Anyway. I'll abandon my soapbox now and get back to the book. As I was saying, Berkman is a real stiff at the beginning of the book, and I was duly worried. This book had 'painful slog' written all over it. For the first three hundred pages, it was three stars. Occasionally fascinating (when it dealt with day-to-day life in 1890s-1900s penitentiaries), but just as often, windy and preachy (when Berkman talks about the Cause). But somewhere around the last two hundred pages, the book got unputdownable. (My spellcheck didn't underline unputdownable. Is that a real word??) Berkman becomes affected by the prisoners around them. He starts to feel for them, as individuals and not as theoretical social units. There are some really, really, really sad stories in that prison—most of them involving teenage boys who are abused, get sick, and die agonizing deaths. Berkman becomes a comforter and friend to these people that society has forgotten, and he gradually starts to reappraise his youthful, abstract understanding of political activism. (Berkman spent thirteen years in the prison, and one year in the workhouse.) When he is released—and we the readers feel as though we've been through absolute hell with him—he is unable to readjust to the outside world. The freedom that seemed so desirable becomes oppressive, and Berkman is forced to engage with this reality as a living, feeling individual rather than merely as a some white-gloved intellectual in a pince-nez. So what I'm saying is, yeah, the first 300 pages are just okay, but the last 200 pages make it better and worthwhile.
February 11, 2025
”I don’t believe in immortality. But...I really think there is such a thing as immortality of an idea.”
Young Alexander Berkman was driven by an idea — Propaganda of the Deed, an extreme Anarchist ideal. It drove him to attempt to assassinate robber baron Henry Clay Frick for his violently brutal crushing of the Steelworkers union in Homestead, Pennsylvania. He assumed that he would be hung. He was ready to die for the cause. He failed. The robber baron survived his wounds. Instead of a quick martyr’s death, the twenty two year old Berkman was given a twenty two year sentence, a living death in the penitentiary.
Berkman wrote The Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist after his release. It’s a remarkable record that accomplished several things. It revealed the brutality of the prisons and the corrupting influence of the American penal system. It humanized the prison inmates. Previously even Anarchist and Socialist had scorned this underclass as common criminals. Berkman presented them as victims of a corrupt system, human beings worthy of their attention. Finally, it revealed Berkman’s personal growth under the worst possible conditions.
Berkman’s writing is simple, clear and compelling. It’s remarkable how he used it to show his personal transformation. In the early chapters, he is a fierce, true believer. He’s completely committed to the cause of “the people” with no thought to spare for mere individuals. By book’s end, still absolutely committed to the Anarchist ideal, he has learned compassion for individuals. He writes:
”I feel that the individual, in certain cases, is of more direct, immediate consequence than humanity. What is the latter but the aggregate of individual existences — and shall these, the best of them, forever be sacrificed for the metaphorical collective?”
The Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist delivered more than I expected of it. It is more than a window into a past time. It is a monument to an immortal idea.
Young Alexander Berkman was driven by an idea — Propaganda of the Deed, an extreme Anarchist ideal. It drove him to attempt to assassinate robber baron Henry Clay Frick for his violently brutal crushing of the Steelworkers union in Homestead, Pennsylvania. He assumed that he would be hung. He was ready to die for the cause. He failed. The robber baron survived his wounds. Instead of a quick martyr’s death, the twenty two year old Berkman was given a twenty two year sentence, a living death in the penitentiary.
Berkman wrote The Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist after his release. It’s a remarkable record that accomplished several things. It revealed the brutality of the prisons and the corrupting influence of the American penal system. It humanized the prison inmates. Previously even Anarchist and Socialist had scorned this underclass as common criminals. Berkman presented them as victims of a corrupt system, human beings worthy of their attention. Finally, it revealed Berkman’s personal growth under the worst possible conditions.
Berkman’s writing is simple, clear and compelling. It’s remarkable how he used it to show his personal transformation. In the early chapters, he is a fierce, true believer. He’s completely committed to the cause of “the people” with no thought to spare for mere individuals. By book’s end, still absolutely committed to the Anarchist ideal, he has learned compassion for individuals. He writes:
”I feel that the individual, in certain cases, is of more direct, immediate consequence than humanity. What is the latter but the aggregate of individual existences — and shall these, the best of them, forever be sacrificed for the metaphorical collective?”
The Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist delivered more than I expected of it. It is more than a window into a past time. It is a monument to an immortal idea.
December 31, 2008
Some quick thoughts: A gorgeous bildungsroman, illustrating the evolution of radical thought in one individual while intertwined with the so called "immigrant experience". What is ultimately so splendid about the text is Berkman's realization of the inherent value found in all social actors, let them be the lumpenproleteriat of the prison or the authoritative gaze of the prison guard. Although many would argue Berkman's time in prison effectively instilled the dominant bourgeois ideology of social change through non-violent means, I would argue otherwise. As Berkman writes of the assasination ,
"In Russia, where political oppression is popularly felt, such a deed [assasination] would be of great value. But the sceheme of political subjection is more subtle in America...The real despotism of republican insitutions is far deeper, more insidious, because it rests on the popular delusion of self-government and independence. That is the subtle source of democratic tyranny, as such, it cannot be reached with a bullet." (424)
Simply put, violence has its place, as a tool of revolution and upheavel, but only in certain forums and situations. It is of grave importance to note however, that the Berkman in the text does not seek forgiveness for his attempted assassination, a facet of his personality I was intrigued and sympathetic towards. In the end, Berkman's memoirs exhibit how one man who is possessed by nothing more than an ideology, is able to think outside of these confines and view the world as complex while still looking towards the freedom of all people.
"In Russia, where political oppression is popularly felt, such a deed [assasination] would be of great value. But the sceheme of political subjection is more subtle in America...The real despotism of republican insitutions is far deeper, more insidious, because it rests on the popular delusion of self-government and independence. That is the subtle source of democratic tyranny, as such, it cannot be reached with a bullet." (424)
Simply put, violence has its place, as a tool of revolution and upheavel, but only in certain forums and situations. It is of grave importance to note however, that the Berkman in the text does not seek forgiveness for his attempted assassination, a facet of his personality I was intrigued and sympathetic towards. In the end, Berkman's memoirs exhibit how one man who is possessed by nothing more than an ideology, is able to think outside of these confines and view the world as complex while still looking towards the freedom of all people.
March 10, 2015
Alexander Berkman was born in 1870 in Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. He emigrated to the United States in 1888 and soon became active in the anarchist movement. After a failed attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick on the occasion of the failure of the Homestead strike against the Carnegie Steal Company, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison, of which he served fourteen years before his release in 1905. His prison memoirs are a powerful account of the horror of the Pennsylvania penitentiary during those years. The inhumanity of the warden, the guards and the "inspectors" is on full display in Beckman's long account and only serves to deepen his radicalism. In fact, it is precisely Berkman's political idealism, more than anything else, that sustains him through long years of solitary confinement, many days in the "dungeon" and endemic physical violence, more of the latter coming from prison officials than fellow prisoners."You can, in a measure, escape the sordidness of life," he says, "only by living for something higher" (447). Whatever one might think of Berkman's crime or his anarchist beliefs, these writings reveal a man of startling humanity who reaches out in sympathy to the sad, pitiful men around him--some mere teenagers, some insane, some completely dispirited and broken down by years of cruel imprisonment. Berkman's uncompromising belief in our essential brotherhood and his repeated attack on those "honored" institutions he believes exploit us can, at times, sound very dated. And perhaps it is sad we can no longer resonate to someone who tells us, "To struggle against Caesar side-by-side, with the people: to suffer with them, and to die, if need be. That is life" (485). A classic of prison literature and a book, very painful to read at times, that throws down a real challenge to us all.
December 23, 2024
Having read the autobiography of Emma Goldman, I was curious to read about her friend and lover, Alexander Berkman. Despite Emma loving him more than anyone else in her life, I had the impression from her book that Berkman did not appreciate her because he was so single-minded in his ideological pursuit of Anarchism and "The revolution".
His memoirs confirmed this impression was accurate. We start this story with a very young, stubborn young man who I can only describe as a "joyless communist": He looks down upon people who dare to retain some sense of individualism as holding onto evil bourgeois beliefs and habits; we should all become nameless, emotionless, well-running cogs in the machine of Anarchism. Example: He has a fight with his cousin Fedya ("The twin"), because Fedya dared to spend 0.30 cents on a meal, when he could have fed himself with 0.10 cents. Any sort of attempt or desire for people to experience anything beyond survival is dismissed as indulgence. This attitude very strongly reminded me of my own religious upbringing (Catholic): Everything you do is for God, and you should just be happy to serve him and the church. Having individual wants and feelings is sin. Same thing with Berkmans approach to Anarchism.
At times it’s frustrating to watch him make certain choices because “the revolution demands it”; at other times I respect him immensely because he applies the same rigid standard on himself, at cost to himself.
He falls into the trap of intellectual elitism early on in this book. He waxes poetic about “The People” but then when he’s actually around “The People” there is no room in his heart for them and their flaws, he’s hyper idealistic and it’s….a bit petulant. “The people” are not some grand ideal abstraction. It’s made up of stunted, hurt, and real human beings who are more complicated than a simple binary of good and bad. He does not understand that the key to good praxis, to converting peoples minds, is to meet them where they are, rather than shaming them for not being where he is.
Another irritation is how casually he takes Emma Goldman for granted. She’s the only one who is consistent with him all through the years and he just brushed that love and solidarity off with “well, she’s a revolutionary too, so she has to support me”. His entitlement to womens mental and emotional labour is that of a typical Manarchist- which is exactly what he was. I said what I said. Fight me about.
I was seething mad with him until halfway through when he suddenly pulls his head out of his rear and realizes that he needs to build community with the people around him rather than putting up an intellectually elitist and impenetrable force around himself. Having spent a year in solitary confinement, he remarks " Growing intimacy discovers the humanity beneath fibres coarsened by lack of opportunity, and brutalised by misery and fear".
At this point (around page 230-250), the book changes. Berkman matures. He is able to feel compassion for people he once shunned as intellectually inferior. Not only that, he begins to connect with them, to build friendships, support networks. He begins to engage with the life and people around him, and in doing this he matures as an Anarchist and as a man.
One particularly interesting example of this is in his views on homosexuality and love of mankind. At the beginning of his imprisonment, he remarks that he is aware of homosexuality, and he makes 2 statements about it:
1. That it is unnatural
2. That men cannot really love other men the way men love women.
By the end of his prison sentence, he has changed his mind about both of these statements. We see him having a intimate discussion with fellow prisoner George, who fell in love with another prisoner, wanted to have sex with him, but did not because he loved him so much that he didn't want to dirty the relationship with sex. Berkman tells George that he is not evil for this, that love is a natural and beautiful emotion. Berkman admits to loving a boy called Russell-he is disgusted by the idea of sexual contact, but he deeply and genuinely loves Russell, cares for his well being, is devestated when he dies at the hands of prison authorities, and rages against the system that caused his death.
Now, when he fights against the prison authorities and the state, it is done out of love for his fellow man, rather than the need to submit mindlessly and completely to an ideology. Watching his growth as a leftist and his personal development in prison is a good lesson for up-and-coming anarchists. We are not perfect, we all grow and change and we should keep doing so. We all have something to learn from Berkman, as pedantic as he may be. Most important, our praxis should come from a place of Love, because that is when we are most powerful, when we are most living and fulfilling the aims of Anarchism.
I ended up liking him by the end of it.
23/12/2024: I would give all my money to be able to ask Berkman and Goldman about their thoughts on Luigi Mangione.
His memoirs confirmed this impression was accurate. We start this story with a very young, stubborn young man who I can only describe as a "joyless communist": He looks down upon people who dare to retain some sense of individualism as holding onto evil bourgeois beliefs and habits; we should all become nameless, emotionless, well-running cogs in the machine of Anarchism. Example: He has a fight with his cousin Fedya ("The twin"), because Fedya dared to spend 0.30 cents on a meal, when he could have fed himself with 0.10 cents. Any sort of attempt or desire for people to experience anything beyond survival is dismissed as indulgence. This attitude very strongly reminded me of my own religious upbringing (Catholic): Everything you do is for God, and you should just be happy to serve him and the church. Having individual wants and feelings is sin. Same thing with Berkmans approach to Anarchism.
At times it’s frustrating to watch him make certain choices because “the revolution demands it”; at other times I respect him immensely because he applies the same rigid standard on himself, at cost to himself.
He falls into the trap of intellectual elitism early on in this book. He waxes poetic about “The People” but then when he’s actually around “The People” there is no room in his heart for them and their flaws, he’s hyper idealistic and it’s….a bit petulant. “The people” are not some grand ideal abstraction. It’s made up of stunted, hurt, and real human beings who are more complicated than a simple binary of good and bad. He does not understand that the key to good praxis, to converting peoples minds, is to meet them where they are, rather than shaming them for not being where he is.
Another irritation is how casually he takes Emma Goldman for granted. She’s the only one who is consistent with him all through the years and he just brushed that love and solidarity off with “well, she’s a revolutionary too, so she has to support me”. His entitlement to womens mental and emotional labour is that of a typical Manarchist- which is exactly what he was. I said what I said. Fight me about.
I was seething mad with him until halfway through when he suddenly pulls his head out of his rear and realizes that he needs to build community with the people around him rather than putting up an intellectually elitist and impenetrable force around himself. Having spent a year in solitary confinement, he remarks " Growing intimacy discovers the humanity beneath fibres coarsened by lack of opportunity, and brutalised by misery and fear".
At this point (around page 230-250), the book changes. Berkman matures. He is able to feel compassion for people he once shunned as intellectually inferior. Not only that, he begins to connect with them, to build friendships, support networks. He begins to engage with the life and people around him, and in doing this he matures as an Anarchist and as a man.
One particularly interesting example of this is in his views on homosexuality and love of mankind. At the beginning of his imprisonment, he remarks that he is aware of homosexuality, and he makes 2 statements about it:
1. That it is unnatural
2. That men cannot really love other men the way men love women.
By the end of his prison sentence, he has changed his mind about both of these statements. We see him having a intimate discussion with fellow prisoner George, who fell in love with another prisoner, wanted to have sex with him, but did not because he loved him so much that he didn't want to dirty the relationship with sex. Berkman tells George that he is not evil for this, that love is a natural and beautiful emotion. Berkman admits to loving a boy called Russell-he is disgusted by the idea of sexual contact, but he deeply and genuinely loves Russell, cares for his well being, is devestated when he dies at the hands of prison authorities, and rages against the system that caused his death.
Now, when he fights against the prison authorities and the state, it is done out of love for his fellow man, rather than the need to submit mindlessly and completely to an ideology. Watching his growth as a leftist and his personal development in prison is a good lesson for up-and-coming anarchists. We are not perfect, we all grow and change and we should keep doing so. We all have something to learn from Berkman, as pedantic as he may be. Most important, our praxis should come from a place of Love, because that is when we are most powerful, when we are most living and fulfilling the aims of Anarchism.
I ended up liking him by the end of it.
23/12/2024: I would give all my money to be able to ask Berkman and Goldman about their thoughts on Luigi Mangione.
September 4, 2018
This book was wonderfully capturing and from beginning to end eye-opening. I used to blindly believe in our legal system and barely gave any thought to prisoners and their humanity. They are people, more often than not oppressed that have ended up in such a position due to the errors in our society. What makes this book specially worthwhile are the last 300 pages which I enjoyed way too much, towards the end I barely could put it down. Overall though this book brings a certain comprehension of the violence in the USA which changes with Berkman’s as he progresses and grows throughout the book. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
November 15, 2008
In prison for shooting an industrialist coal factory owner, Frick, Berkman regrets that the bastard wasn't killed, writes of daily life, some of his past, and on anarchism, naturally. I prefer autobiographies and memoirs to people's actual political texts, so I wasn't too disappointed here. I mean, we can all grasp the core beliefs of anarchy in about five minutes, but how people put them into practice is far more interesting.
November 2, 2009
Couldn't finish this. Berkman = insufferable and disappointing.
Read
February 14, 2025I already know that I agree with this man in many ways (and will still attempt the ABCs of Anarchism) but to be honest, this so far reads like he's a sociopath. He didn't even want to give his sick friend money because the money should only be used for "the revolution". Dude shut up. Not to mention the racism. I hope Emma Goldman spent time with better men.
Read
May 24, 2023I couldn't get all the way through just cause of how harrowing it was but love and respect you with all my heart Berk 🖤
Read
December 18, 2025Really really fascinating book. Big fan. I thought it was so interesting to see how Berkman's own mindset and relationship to the prison, broader society, and anarchy as a concept transformed over the course of the memoir.
September 14, 2017
Berkman gives a very real account of his time in prison and how it transformed from super-idealistic martyr to more troubled but realistic hardened anarchist. Parts of the book drag, as it feels the reader is in the prison cell with the author, but parts shine brightly, such as his very exciting and daring escape attempt. An amazing life.
August 15, 2007
In 1892, a Russian-born anarchist named Alexander Berkman walked into the office of Carnegie Steel executive Henry Clay Frick in Pittsburgh during the imfamous Homestead Steel lockout and tried to shoot Frick to death. His attempt failed, and Berkman eventually was sentenced to several years in prison in Pittsburgh. This piece of local history is fairly well known around here, but what is virtually unknown is the book Berkman wrote after his release from prison.
It is astoundingly good, sounding as if it could have been written a year ago. And even if you allow for the possibility that the memoir has been somewhat romanticized or sanitized, it has this ring of honesty: Berkman starts out believing that the other steel strike leaders who are in prison with him will welcome him as a hero, only to discover that he is treated with contempt and distrust because they don't share his anarchist philosophy and come from a different socioeconomic background.
What the book then becomes is a vivid account of the brutalities, large and small, that existed inside the prison that even today is known as Western Penitentiary, and how Berkman eventually gained the trust of fellow prisoners as he worked to help them write and read letters and fight some of the injustices they faced from guards and the warden. This is a really underrecognized gem of historical autobiography.
It is astoundingly good, sounding as if it could have been written a year ago. And even if you allow for the possibility that the memoir has been somewhat romanticized or sanitized, it has this ring of honesty: Berkman starts out believing that the other steel strike leaders who are in prison with him will welcome him as a hero, only to discover that he is treated with contempt and distrust because they don't share his anarchist philosophy and come from a different socioeconomic background.
What the book then becomes is a vivid account of the brutalities, large and small, that existed inside the prison that even today is known as Western Penitentiary, and how Berkman eventually gained the trust of fellow prisoners as he worked to help them write and read letters and fight some of the injustices they faced from guards and the warden. This is a really underrecognized gem of historical autobiography.
December 30, 2008
When he was 22, in July of 1892, Alexander Berkman attempted the assassination of Henry Clay Frick in retaliation for his attack on the Homestead strikers. He served 14 years of a 22 year sentence in Pennsylvania's Western Penitentiary outside of Pittsburgh. This book is a record of his life in the prison and the first months after his release.
While Berkman's writing is often painfully melodramatic and baroque, the intensity of his experience carries through and makes this book an emotionally engaging experience. The cruelty of prison life, in the punishments arbitrarily meted out to inmates, the betrayals of one inmate against another, and the hopelessness facing the inmates upon their release are frequent subject of the memoirs. The memoirs also document the maturation of Berkman's views on subjects including political violence, homosexuality, and criminal psychology.
Additionally, the book provides lots of historical details that help bring to life the New York anarchist circles around the turn of the century. I also learned that Berkman briefly entertained a relationship with a woman employed at New Haven's own Strauss-Adler corset company (a major industry in New Haven, my hometown, at the time).
If you can get past the overwritten prose there's a lot to enjoy here.
While Berkman's writing is often painfully melodramatic and baroque, the intensity of his experience carries through and makes this book an emotionally engaging experience. The cruelty of prison life, in the punishments arbitrarily meted out to inmates, the betrayals of one inmate against another, and the hopelessness facing the inmates upon their release are frequent subject of the memoirs. The memoirs also document the maturation of Berkman's views on subjects including political violence, homosexuality, and criminal psychology.
Additionally, the book provides lots of historical details that help bring to life the New York anarchist circles around the turn of the century. I also learned that Berkman briefly entertained a relationship with a woman employed at New Haven's own Strauss-Adler corset company (a major industry in New Haven, my hometown, at the time).
If you can get past the overwritten prose there's a lot to enjoy here.
June 17, 2007
This is popular anarchist philosopher Alexander Berkman's (Emma Goldman's lifelong best friend) account of what happened preceding his assassination attempt on Louis Frick (a greedy capitalist, who sicked Pinkertons on an innocent group of picketing workers, killing many of them) and takes you behind prison walls with him to confront the evils of incarcerated life, the guards and warden, as well as those within himself and his actions (mainly his failing to kill to Frick).
This book was colorful and raw and written beautifully, though i can't say that i was surprised. Berkman was a great poet, too. If you have read Goldman's autobiography, you know what happens after this book was written, many details of what happened on the outside while Berkman was locked up, etc. Don't pass up on this book. You will never forget it.
This book was colorful and raw and written beautifully, though i can't say that i was surprised. Berkman was a great poet, too. If you have read Goldman's autobiography, you know what happens after this book was written, many details of what happened on the outside while Berkman was locked up, etc. Don't pass up on this book. You will never forget it.
December 25, 2018
At his worst, Berkman is dark and broody: he is nothing but a dogmatic ideologue. At his best, he is compassionate, well-intentioned, and shines the light on both the harsh conditions and the few moments of pleasure obtainable in prison life in the early 20th century.
When talking about his own antics in prison to escape, including renting a house outside the prison grounds and having a pianist play loud music while like-minded anarchists dug a tunnel that he could use to escape, I found the writing less than impressive. However, the pages come alive when Berkman is talking about the hard lives of his comrades in prison, his experiences with love and kinship, and shady exploitative contracted labor practices in the Philadelphia penitentiary.
When talking about his own antics in prison to escape, including renting a house outside the prison grounds and having a pianist play loud music while like-minded anarchists dug a tunnel that he could use to escape, I found the writing less than impressive. However, the pages come alive when Berkman is talking about the hard lives of his comrades in prison, his experiences with love and kinship, and shady exploitative contracted labor practices in the Philadelphia penitentiary.
April 8, 2010
Long, grim. Berkman's politics broaden and become less stilted through the experience of prison. Interesting reflections on sexuality.
Probably a better use of time to read "Nestor Makhno - Anarchy's Cossak".
Probably a better use of time to read "Nestor Makhno - Anarchy's Cossak".
October 14, 2011
Berkman is one of the most humble and consist figures in early 20th century anarchist circles.
February 19, 2020
Really enjoyed this- especially the last 2/3 of it.
December 4, 2012
Found it rather disappointing
January 2, 2018
Alexander Berkman’s ‘Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist’ is a harrowing account of survival in the American prison/justice system, but also the beautiful account of a committed revolutionary maintaining his humanity in the worst conditions possible. Berkman is sent to prison following his attempt to kill Henry Clay Frick for his role in crushing the homestead strike.
The book begins with Berkman reading of the homestead strike and the killing of workers. He vows to gather funds, a gun, and to find Frick. The recollection of the events is not the most powerful part. His account of the assassination attempt reveals a steadfast and devoted revolutionary, but one who appears almost clumsy (Frick survives). The most inspiring part is how he reveals his thinking about his action and devotion to revolution. He is at once self-less striving to avenge fellow workers that he doesn’t know or have any connection to, yet struggles constantly with his own thoughts, though never in a conventionally self-centered way. For example, when discussing escape attempts his first thought is not simply escape, but the revolutionary impact that such an escape could have and inspire.
Beyond the revolutionary aspects and perspective of Berkman, the book shines a bright light on the dark history of US prison systems often ignored by its patriotic adherents. Anyone interested in the brutal institution and how people-revolutionary and non-revolutionary alike-survived with their humanity in tact will find hope in this text.
The book begins with Berkman reading of the homestead strike and the killing of workers. He vows to gather funds, a gun, and to find Frick. The recollection of the events is not the most powerful part. His account of the assassination attempt reveals a steadfast and devoted revolutionary, but one who appears almost clumsy (Frick survives). The most inspiring part is how he reveals his thinking about his action and devotion to revolution. He is at once self-less striving to avenge fellow workers that he doesn’t know or have any connection to, yet struggles constantly with his own thoughts, though never in a conventionally self-centered way. For example, when discussing escape attempts his first thought is not simply escape, but the revolutionary impact that such an escape could have and inspire.
Beyond the revolutionary aspects and perspective of Berkman, the book shines a bright light on the dark history of US prison systems often ignored by its patriotic adherents. Anyone interested in the brutal institution and how people-revolutionary and non-revolutionary alike-survived with their humanity in tact will find hope in this text.
October 5, 2024
This is a very good account after the fact by anarchist revolutionary Alexander Berkman about his time imprisoned after his failed attempt to assassinate Frick after his actions in suppressing the Homestead strike. Its well written and covers such diverse tactics as his changing approach to crime, his changing thoughts on homosexuality, the dehumanizing and abusive conditions inherent in prison system and attempts to survive through his sentence without succumbing to complete despair. I would highly recommend it as a human account of survival through adversity how society create crime and the true power of a revolutionary spirit.
July 20, 2025
เบิร์กแมนพบว่าผู้คุมส่วนใหญ่มีระดับสติปัญญาที่ต่ำกว่านักโทษ และมักจะใช้ "การบังคับและการกดขี่" โดยมองนักโทษเป็นเพียง "วัตถุที่ไร้อำนาจ" ผู้คุมบางคนเป็นทหารผ่านศึกสงครามกลางเมืองก็แสดงความเห็นอกเห็นใจมากกว่า แต่ส่วนใหญ่แล้ว ผู้คุมเก่าแก่ที่มีประสบการณ์ยาวนานจะ "ด้านชาและโหดร้ายอย่างเหลือเชื่อ" มีการฝึกผู้คุมใหม่ให้ "กลายเป็นคนโหดร้าย" (breaking in the new man) โดยบังคับให้เข้าร่วมทีมทุบตีนักโทษ มีการใช้นักโทษที่เชื่อถือได้ (trustees) และสายลับ (stool pigeons) ในการสอดแนมและทรยศนักโทษคนอื่นๆ เพื่อแลกกับสิทธิพิเศษหรือการลดโทษ
October 4, 2024
Didn't finish it. Couldn't, actually, with all of Berkman's casual misogyny. Referring to Emma Goldman, obviously a far more influential figure in the anarchist movement, as "the girl" was a bridge too far for me. Without Emma's help, Berkman would never have written Prison Memoirs, and he sure as hell wouldn't have gotten it published without her. Grateful for his deeds and all that but he was an arrogant fucker and his writing is a struggle to get through.
June 9, 2017
This book took me an awful lot of time to read. I guess it was because of the way it was written. The last two sections though I read at once. The ending was very interesting to read, and it is a definately food-for-thought book
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June 24, 2024read on a train to pittsburgh
October 24, 2024
Op weg naar huis viel mijn schooltas van mijn fiets. Een vrachtwagen reed over mijn tas. Alle boeken waren uit elkaar getrokken. Ook dit boek van de biblio. Hoelang moet ik dit nog bewaren?
January 21, 2025
Disturbing, horrifying and incredibly sad at times.
April 9, 2025
Couldn’t finish it. Incomprehensible first chapters with lengthy anecdotes that feel like fever dreams.
October 22, 2025
Memoir of a true anarchist rebel.
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