Eugène Lanti was a pseudonym of Eugène Adam (19 July 1879 in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, France – 17 January 1947 in Mexico). Lanti was an
Esperantist
An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...
,
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
and writer. He was a founder of
Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda, and a longtime editor of the internationalist socialist magazine ''
Sennaciulo''. Lanti was a critic of
Stalinism and the theoretician of a new doctrine,
anationalism, which aimed to eliminate the very concept of the nation as a guiding idea of social organisation.
Biography
Lanti's parents were peasant farmers. In his early life he worked as an agricultural labourer, carpenter, furniture maker and designer. He was self-educated, and studied in the evening. In 1914 he was mobilised in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and served as an ambulance driver. He learnt Esperanto in 1914–15 at the
Western Front, but in 1919 was almost persuaded to abandon Esperanto in favour of
Ido
Ido () is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary language'', I ...
. Following the war, he returned to Paris, became acquainted with
Lucian Banmer and
Ludoviko Glodeau, and he reaffirmed his support for Esperanto with his editorship of ''
Liberiga Stelo''.
In the 1920s Lanti lived in Paris with
Ellen Kate Limouzin, the aunt of
George Orwell. Orwell visited the couple and suffered as a non-speaker of Esperanto, and developed a strong dislike for the language. It has been suggested that Orwell included elements of Esperanto in the "
Newspeak
Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate that is the setting of the 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', by George Orwell. In the novel, the Party created Newspeak to meet the ideological requirements ...
" language he created in his anti-totalitarian novel, ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...
''.
Lanti's political career
In his youth Lanti had been attracted to
anarchism, but in 1920 he abandoned
anarchism and became a founding member of the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...
. In 1921 in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
he was the initiator and ''de facto'' leader of
Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (SAT), a broad-based Esperanto-speaking organisation (containing Communists, Social Democrats and anarchists) which does not organise along national lines.
In 1933 Lanti, wounded by personal attacks and criticisms of his leadership, left his position of president of the Central Committee of SAT, a position he had occupied since the foundation of the organization. He continued, however, to play a role in the organisation chiefly as a writer. In 1935 Lanti founded the independent magazine ''
Herezulo'' in which he criticised the Soviet regime more forcefully than in Sennaciulo.
Lanti as lexicographer
Lanti was self-taught both in his use of literary French and Esperanto. He worked with ''
Petit Larousse'', and sought to create an Esperanto dictionary of the same type. He was centrally involved in the project run by SAT for the writing and design of the ''
Plena Vortaro'' which later became today's ''
Plena Ilustrita Vortaro''.
Later years
After his retirement in 1937, to meet Esperantists, Lanti left France for good and travelled to Spain,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, North Africa, Japan, Australia,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and South America. Suffering from an incurable illness, he hanged himself in his flat in Mexico on 17 January 1947.
References
External links
Eugene Lanti Archiveat
marxists.org
Manifesto of Non-Nationalistsby E. Lanti
by Tonyo del Barrio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanti, Eugene
1879 births
1947 suicides
French Esperantists
Esperanto lexicographers
Suicides by hanging in Mexico