John Henry Mackay, by Wikipedia
Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 5:11 am
John Henry Mackay
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/11/18
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
John Henry Mackay
Born 6 February 1864
Greenock, Scotland
Died 16 May 1933 (aged 69)
Stahnsdorf, Germany
Pen name Sagitta
Occupation writer
Nationality dual British/German
Genre non fiction
Subject political philosophy
Literary movement naturalism
Notable works Die Anarchisten (The Anarchists)
Der Freiheitsucher (The Freedomseeker)
John Henry Mackay (6 February 1864 – 16 May 1933) was an individualist anarchist, thinker and writer. Born in Scotland and raised in Germany, Mackay was the author of Die Anarchisten (The Anarchists, 1891) and Der Freiheitsucher (The Searcher for Freedom, 1921). Mackay was published in the United States in his friend Benjamin Tucker's magazine, Liberty. He was a noted homosexual.
Life
Mackay was born in Greenock on February 6, 1864. His mother came from a prosperous Hamburg family. His father was a Scottish marine insurance broker who died when the child was less than two years old, at which point mother and son returned to Germany, where Mackay grew up.[1]
Mackay lived in Berlin from 1896 onwards, and became a friend of scientist and Gemeinschaft der Eigenen co-founder Benedict Friedlaender.
Mackay died in Stahnsdorf on 16 May 1933, ten days after the Nazi book burnings at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. Adolf Hitler had become Reichskanzler on 30 January 1933, and soon all activities of the German homosexual emancipation movement ceased. Allegations that Mackay's death may have been a suicide have been disputed:
Writing and influence
Using the pseudonym Sagitta, Mackay wrote a series of works for pederastic emancipation, titled Die Bücher der namenlosen Liebe (Books of the Nameless Love). This series was conceived in 1905 and completed in 1913 and included the Fenny Skaller, a story of a pederast.[2] Under his real name he also published fiction, such as Der Schwimmer (1901) and, again as Sagitta, he published a pederastic novel of the Berlin boy-bars, Der Puppenjunge (literally "The Boy-Doll", but published in English as The Hustler) (1926). In a note to the American publisher of this book, Christopher Isherwood said, "It gives a picture of the Berlin sexual underworld early in this century which I know, from my own experience, to be authentic."
Richard Strauss's well-known songs from his Vier Lieder (Op. 27), a wedding gift to his wife in 1894, include settings to music of two of Mackay's poems: "Morgen!" and "Heimliche Aufforderung". Other uses of Mackay's poems by Strauss include "Verführung" (Op. 33 No. 1) and "In der Campagna" (Op. 41 No. 2).
Arnold Schoenberg set music to his poem "Am Wegrand."
References
1. *Kennedy, Hubert (2002). "Mackay, John Henry (1864-1933)". glbtq: an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, & queer culture. glbtq.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
2. "Richard Strauss and John Henry Mackay" by Hubert Kennedy. Thamyris 2.
Further reading
• Kennedy, Hubert. Anarchist of Love: The Secret Life of John Henry Mackay (2nd Edition, 2002)
• "On the Nameless Love and Infinite Sexualities: John Henry Mackay, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Origins of the Sexual Emancipation Movement", Journal of Homosexuality, Vol 50, No.1, 2005.
External links
• John Henry Mackay (1864-1933) Find A Grave memorial
• Works by John Henry Mackay at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about John Henry Mackay at Internet Archive
• Works by John Henry Mackay at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Bike tour to John Henry Mackay’s grave
• Thomas A. Riley, New England Anarchism in Germany. Retrieved Feb 2, 2008.
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/11/18
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
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John Henry Mackay
Born 6 February 1864
Greenock, Scotland
Died 16 May 1933 (aged 69)
Stahnsdorf, Germany
Pen name Sagitta
Occupation writer
Nationality dual British/German
Genre non fiction
Subject political philosophy
Literary movement naturalism
Notable works Die Anarchisten (The Anarchists)
Der Freiheitsucher (The Freedomseeker)
John Henry Mackay (6 February 1864 – 16 May 1933) was an individualist anarchist, thinker and writer. Born in Scotland and raised in Germany, Mackay was the author of Die Anarchisten (The Anarchists, 1891) and Der Freiheitsucher (The Searcher for Freedom, 1921). Mackay was published in the United States in his friend Benjamin Tucker's magazine, Liberty. He was a noted homosexual.
Life
Mackay was born in Greenock on February 6, 1864. His mother came from a prosperous Hamburg family. His father was a Scottish marine insurance broker who died when the child was less than two years old, at which point mother and son returned to Germany, where Mackay grew up.[1]
Mackay lived in Berlin from 1896 onwards, and became a friend of scientist and Gemeinschaft der Eigenen co-founder Benedict Friedlaender.
Despite [Rudolf Steiner's] later assertions, it seems that he did not at the time rule out the possibility of a reformation of human nature in terms less occult, and more related to the social goals of the opponents of materialist society. He became involved in the Free Literary Society, taught at the Berlin Workers' School, and generally behaved himself as a member of the Progressive Underground -- more respectable, more established than most; but he undoubtedly belonged to this milieu. He formed a friendship with John Henry Mackay, a half-Scot, half-German anarchist of some fame who was the editor of Max Stirner and who had admired Steiner's book The Philosophy of Freedom. At Steiner's marriage to the widow Anna Eunicke (on 31 October 1899), Mackay was the witness. [82]
-- The Occult Establishment, by James Webb
Mackay died in Stahnsdorf on 16 May 1933, ten days after the Nazi book burnings at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. Adolf Hitler had become Reichskanzler on 30 January 1933, and soon all activities of the German homosexual emancipation movement ceased. Allegations that Mackay's death may have been a suicide have been disputed:
Mackay died on 16 May 1933 in the office of his doctor, only a few houses from his own, apparently of a heart attack. He was also suffering from stones in his bladder.
— Kennedy, Hubert. Anarchist of Love: The Secret Life of John Henry Mackay
Writing and influence
Using the pseudonym Sagitta, Mackay wrote a series of works for pederastic emancipation, titled Die Bücher der namenlosen Liebe (Books of the Nameless Love). This series was conceived in 1905 and completed in 1913 and included the Fenny Skaller, a story of a pederast.[2] Under his real name he also published fiction, such as Der Schwimmer (1901) and, again as Sagitta, he published a pederastic novel of the Berlin boy-bars, Der Puppenjunge (literally "The Boy-Doll", but published in English as The Hustler) (1926). In a note to the American publisher of this book, Christopher Isherwood said, "It gives a picture of the Berlin sexual underworld early in this century which I know, from my own experience, to be authentic."
THE CAMEL RIDER
The camel-rider swoops across
the desert, with his howling Jinn,
To wreck and ravage human life;
insufferable Bedawin!
But shall he ravish thee from me?
I see the camel check and kneel,
Vanquished by dread of the Unknown,
appalled by fear of the Unseen!
To Death is Love impregnable;
To Love seems Death desirable,
Fixing the lightning flash of life
and making permanent the scene.
The Zahid looks from Life to Death;
the Sufi gathers Death from Life;
They podex between 'twixt thy buttocks lies,
the Future and the Past between.
The Sufi pierces, gains and holds
the Present; can the present fade?
Never! through all the seas of time
fares on the prow erect and keen.
The keel a member fit to pierce
the podices of ocean-lords,
Clasped to thy gushing bosom-waves,
o pearly amorous undine!
The `Maybe' and the `Letushope',
the `Allahknows; and `I believe';
The `Sweetitwas' and `Werecall',
the `Pitytis' and `Mighthavebeen':
These founder in the rushing tide,
these bear a cargo black with fear,
Heavy with hate and dull with woe,
a miserable load of teen:
While we the `Jolly Roger' sail
whose freight is fairy pearls of dew;
The podex and the member locked,
without a bar, without a screen.
Remembrance and regret we quash;
we banish traitor hope and fear;
The present ecstacy is all,
the Middle Path, the Golden Mean.
And He endure, then love endures:
-- so El Qahar will ever sing,
Till he the world from mil of prayer
to wine of meditation wean.
Like peacocks in a garden spread
our thousand eyes of jewel-sheen.
Though squawking with an eunuch's voice,
our paederastic plumes we preen.
For voice is sound, and dies with air;
light is co-excellent with God;
As Hate's a poison for delight,
so love's a physic for the spleen.
And El Qahar is Truth, and nought
but Allah stuffs his gaberdine, {FN10}
And Allah windeth he about
with tarband gemmed of gold and green.
-- The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz, (c) Ordo Templi Orientis
Richard Strauss's well-known songs from his Vier Lieder (Op. 27), a wedding gift to his wife in 1894, include settings to music of two of Mackay's poems: "Morgen!" and "Heimliche Aufforderung". Other uses of Mackay's poems by Strauss include "Verführung" (Op. 33 No. 1) and "In der Campagna" (Op. 41 No. 2).
Arnold Schoenberg set music to his poem "Am Wegrand."
References
1. *Kennedy, Hubert (2002). "Mackay, John Henry (1864-1933)". glbtq: an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, & queer culture. glbtq.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
2. "Richard Strauss and John Henry Mackay" by Hubert Kennedy. Thamyris 2.
Further reading
• Kennedy, Hubert. Anarchist of Love: The Secret Life of John Henry Mackay (2nd Edition, 2002)
• "On the Nameless Love and Infinite Sexualities: John Henry Mackay, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Origins of the Sexual Emancipation Movement", Journal of Homosexuality, Vol 50, No.1, 2005.
External links
• John Henry Mackay (1864-1933) Find A Grave memorial
• Works by John Henry Mackay at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about John Henry Mackay at Internet Archive
• Works by John Henry Mackay at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Bike tour to John Henry Mackay’s grave
• Thomas A. Riley, New England Anarchism in Germany. Retrieved Feb 2, 2008.