Berkman, Alexander

Berkman, Alexander

(1870–1936) anarchist, author; born in Vilna, Russia. After being influenced by Russian nihilists, he emigrated to America (1887). He became involved with radical Jewish labor groups in New York City and in 1879 began his personal and professional liaison with Emma Goldman that would last to the end of his life. He gained international attention with his attempted assassination of Henry C. Frick (1892); for this he served 14 years in prison (1892–1906). He founded and edited Mother Earth with Goldman after his release. The two were arrested and found guilty of opposing conscription during World War I. He went to prison again (1917–19) and then, along with Goldman, was deported to Russia (1919) as a political undesirable. Originally he supported the Communist Revolution in Russia but he changed his views and wrote The Bolshevik Myth (1925). He spent his final years in Sweden, Germany, and France before committing suicide in Nice, France.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.