Abstract
Der Einzige und sein Eigentum is an unusual and intriguing text.1 It is perhaps the unconventional character of both the substantive content and literary form of the book that leads so many readers to wonder about its author, Max Stirner (1806–1856), and about the kind of life that he might have lived. In this chapter, I provide some biographical information about Stirner, and, rather more tentatively, broach some questions about the relationship between his life and work — in particular, the relationship between his life and the singular book with which he is closely identified.
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Notes
References to Der Einzige und sein Eigentum take the form of two page numbers separated by a forward slash. The references are to M. Stirner (1972) Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, ed. Ahlrich Meyer (Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam);
and M. Stirner (1995) The Ego and Its Own, ed. David Leopold (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), respectively.
References to Mackay’s biography take the form of two page numbers separated by a forward slash. The references are to J. H. Mackay (1914) Max Stirner. Sein Leben und sein Werk, third edition (Berlin: Selbstverlag);
and J. H. Mackay (2005) Max Stirner. His Life and Work, trans. Hubert Kennedy (Concord, CA: Peremptory Publications), respectively.
Friedrich Engels to Max Hildebrand, 22 October 1889, A. Marx and F. Engels (1957–1986) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Werke (Berlin: Dietz Verlag) (henceforth MEW), volume 37, p. 292;
and A. Marx and F. Engels (1975–2005) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Collected Works (London and New York: Lawrence & Wishart) (henceforth MECW), volume 48, p. 393.
See also ‘Letter from Edgar Bauer (duplicate)’, translated by Lawrence S. Stepelevich (1978) The Philosophical Forum, 8/2–4, p. 169.
See, for example, L. S. Stepelevich (1985) ‘Max Stirner as Hegelian’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 46/4: 597–614;
and W. de Ridder (2008) ‘Max Stirner, Hegel, and the Young Hegelians’, History of European Ideas, 34/3: 285–297.
Stirner judiciously insisted on its informal character in his published response to some contemporary negative publicity. See his contribution to the Leipziger Allgemeine Zeitung, no. 190, 9 July 1842, in M. Stirner (1914) Kleinere Schriften und seine Entgegnungen auf die Kritik seines Werkes ‘Der Einzige und sein Eigentum’ (Berlin: Bernhard Zack), pp. 129–131.
Mackay thought that his earliest published work dated from 1842, but Stirner has more recently been identified as the author of a review of Theodor Rohmer, Deutschlands Beruf in der Gegenwart und Zukunft (Zurich: Verlag des literarischen Comptoirs, 1841), which appeared in Die Eisenbahn. Ein Unterhaltungsblatt für die gebildete Welt, 77/78 (28/30 December 1841), pp. 307–308, 310–312.
See Stirner, Kleinere Schriften, pp. 237–257. There is an English translation by Robert H. Beebe published as Max Stirner, The False Principle of Our Education, edited by James J. Martin (Colorado Springs, CO: Ralph Myles, 1967).
See Stirner, Kleinere Schriften, pp. 258–268. There is an English translation by Lawrence S. Stepelevich in Lawrence S. Stepelevich (ed.), The Young Hegelians. An Anthology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 327, 334.
I have discussed Stirner’s relation to anarchism in David Leopold (2006) ‘The State and I: Max Stirner’s Anarchism’ in D. Moggach (ed.), The New Hegelians. Politics and Philosophy in the Hegelian School (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 176–199.
To give a non-Stirnerian example, it has been argued that locating Hegel’s life in the religious and political culture of Württemberg provides guidance as to the character and role of the concept of ‘ethical life [Sittlichkeit]’ in his thought. See L. Dickey (1987) Hegel. Religion, Economics, and the Politics of Spirit, 1770–1807 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
R.W.K. Paterson (1971) The Nihilistic Egoist. Max Stirner (Oxford: Oxford University Press for University of Hull), p. 17.
On Mackay see T. A. Riley (1972) Germany’s Poet-Anarchist John Henry Mackay A Contribution to the History of German Literature, 1880–1920 (New York: Revisionist Press);
K.H.Z. Solneman (pseudonym of Kurt Helmut Zube) (1979) Der Bahnbrecher John Henry Mackay: Sein Leben und sein Werke (Freiburg im Breisgau: Verlag der Mackay-Gesellschaft);
and H. Kennedy (2002) Anarchist of Love. The Secret Life of John Henry Mackay, revised and expanded edition (San Francisco, CA: Peremptory Publications).
The relation of Stirner’s thought to the writings of Benjamin R. Tucker, James L. Walker, and Dora Marsden, respectively, is discussed in J. F. Welsh (2010) Max Stirner’s Dialectical Egoism. A New Interpretation (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books), chapters 4–6.
George Schumm was a compositor, printer, and assistant to Tucker. In addition to helping to copy-edit and proofread the Byington translation, Schumm translated Mackay’s Die Anarchisten. See P. Avrich (2005) Anarchist Voices. An Oral History of Anarchism in America (Oakland, CA: AK Press), pp. 11–13.
A more literal translation of the title would be The Unique Individual and His Property. Benjamin R. Tucker was the editor of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty between 1881 and 1908, and author of the wonderfully titled Instead of a Book, By a Man Too Busy to Write One (New York: Benj. R. Tucker, 1893). On Tucker, see Avrich, Anarchist Voices, pp. 8–11; and P. Avrich (1988) Anarchist Portraits (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), chapter 10.
On Liberty, see F. H. Brooks (1994) The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1891–1908) (New York: Transaction Publishers).
The skull may have been sold earlier to an unknown private collector. See F. Dobe (1987) John Henry Mackay als Mensch (Koblenz: Edition Plato), p. 82,
and the letter from Mackay to Tucker, 28 August 1925, in J. H. Mackay (2002) Dear Tucker. The Letters from John Henry Mackay to Benjamin R. Tucker, edited and translated by Hubert Kennedy (San Francisco, CA: Peremptory Press), p. 214.
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© 2011 David Leopold
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Leopold, D. (2011). A Solitary Life. In: Newman, S. (eds) Max Stirner. Critical Explorations in Contemporary Political Thought Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230348929_2
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