By Max Stirner,Steven T. Byington
For greater than 20 years i've got entertained the layout of publishing an English translation of " Der Einzige und sein Eigentum. 1 " while I shaped this layout, the variety of English-speaking people who had ever heard of the e-book used to be very constrained. The reminiscence of Max Stirner have been almost extinct for a complete iteration. yet within the final 20 years there was a amazing revival of curiosity either within the booklet and in its writer. it all started during this state with a dialogue within the pages of the Anarchist periodical, " Liberty," within which Stirner's idea used to be essentially expounded and vigorously championed by way of Dr. James L. Walker, who followed for this dialogue the pseudonym " Tak Kak." at the moment Dr. Walker was once the executive editorial author for the Galveston " News." a few years later he grew to become a practicing health practitioner in Mexico, the place he died in 1904. a sequence of essays which he started in an Anarchist periodical, " Egoism," and which he lived to accomplish, used to be released after his dying in a small quantity, " The Philosophy of Egoism." it's a very capable and convincing exposition of Stirner's teachings, and virtually the one person who exists within the English language. however the leader tool within the revival of Stirnerism was once and is the German poet, John Henry Mackay. Very early in his profession he met Stirner's identify in Lange's " historical past of Materialism," and was once moved thereby to learn his e-book. The paintings made such an impact on him that he resolved to dedicate a part of his existence to the rediscovery and rehabilitation of the misplaced and forgotten genius. via years of toil and correspondence and shuttle, and winning over large stumbling blocks, he carried his activity to finishing touch, and his biography of Stirner seemed in Berlin in 1898. it's a tribute to the thoroughness of Mackay's paintings that considering that its book now not one very important truth approximately Stirner has been came upon by means of anyone. in the course of his years of research Mackay's ads for info had created a brand new curiosity in Stimer, which used to be more desirable through the unexpected popularity of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, an writer whose highbrow kinship with Stirner has been an issue of a lot controversy. " Der Einzige," formerly accessible in simple terms in a dear shape, used to be incorporated in Philipp Reclam's Uni-versal-Bibliothek, and this affordable version has loved a large and ever-increasing move. over the past dozen years the publication has been translated two times into French, as soon as into Italian, as soon as into Russian, and probably into different languages. The Scandinavian critic, Brandes, has written on Stirner. a wide and appreciative quantity, entitled " L'' Individnalisme Anar-chiste: Max Stirner" from the pen of Prof. Victor Basch, of the collage of Rennes, has seemed in Paris. one other huge and sympathetic quantity, " Max Stirner," written by way of Dr. Anselm Ruest, has been released very lately in Berlin. Dr. Paul Eltzbacher, in his paintings, " Der Anarchismus," supplies a bankruptcy to Stirner, making him one of many seven common Anarchists, starting with William Godwin and finishing with Tolstoi, of whom his publication treats. there's hardly ever a amazing journal or a assessment at the Continent that has now not given at the very least one best article to the topic of Stirner. Upon the initiative of Mackay and via different admirers an appropriate stone has been put above the philosopher's previously-neglected grave, and a memorial pill upon the home in Berlin the place he died in 1856; and this spring one other is to be positioned upon the home in Bayreuth the place he was once bom in 1806. because of those a number of efforts, and even though yet little has been written approximately Stirner within the English language, his identify is referred to now at the least to hundreds of thousands in the US and England the place previously it was once recognized in simple terms to hundreds.