Clarence Lee Swartz (1868–1936) was an American individualist anarchist, whose best-known work, ''What is Mutualism?'' (1927) is a book explaining the economic system of mutualism. Swartz was a friend of Benjamin Tucker and frequent contributor of signed and unsigned editorials to Tucker's newspaper ''

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

''. In addition, he worked for a series of anarchist newspapers and journals. He worked in the mechanical department of ''Liberty'' beginning in 1891, edited an anarchist journal called ''Voice of the People'' and served as assistant editor for Moses Harman's journal '' Lucifer, the Light-Bearer'' in 1890. Swartz was arrested in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

for distributing a newspaper called ''Sunday Sun'' in 1891. The charges were dropped when the prosecutor failed to show in court. He published two individualist anarchist periodicals at the turn of the century, ''I'' (beginning in 1898) and ''The Free Comrade'' (beginning in 1900). In 1908, Tucker's publishing business, including most of his books and plates, were destroyed in a fire and after Tucker retired from publishing and moved to Europe, "practically all of the literature of individualist anarchism entout of print". Swartz made efforts throughout the 1920s to revive the individualist literature. He prepared and edited ''Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker'' (New York: Vanguard Press), a collection of excerpts from Tucker's writing in ''Liberty'', which was the first collection of Tucker's writing since Tucker's own collection ''Instead of a Book''. In 1923 he worked together with Charles T. Sprading and J. William Lloyd on ''The Libertarian'', a magazine opposed to blue laws,

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

and the

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

of arts and entertainment.''The Libertarian: An ANTI-BLUE-LAW MAGAZINE'', Vol. I, No. 1
(Third Quarter, 1923).

References

External links

* Clarence Lee Swartz (1898)
''I'' (Number One)
July 1898. * Clarence Lee Swartz (1898)
''I'' (Number Two)
August 1898. * Clarence Lee Swartz (1923)
"Our Purpose and Reason for Being"
in ''The Libertarian'' Vol. I, No. 1. 1. * Clarence Lee Swartz (1927)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swartz, Clarence Lee 1868 births 1936 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century anarchists American anarchist writers American male journalists American male non-fiction writers Anarchist theorists Individualist anarchists Mutualists Voluntaryists