Carl Sadakichi Hartmann (November 8, 1867 – November 22, 1944) was an American art critic, poet, and anarchist.

Biography

Hartmann, born on the

artificial island An artificial island or man-made island is an island that has been Construction, constructed by humans rather than formed through natural processes. Other definitions may suggest that artificial islands are lands with the characteristics of hum ...

Dejima or Deshima, in the 17th century also called , was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan, that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1858). For 220 years, it was the central con ...

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

, to a Japanese mother Osada Hartmann (who died soon after childbirth) and German businessman Carl Herman Oskar Hartmann and raised in Germany, arrived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

in 1882 and became an American citizen in 1894. An important early participant in

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, Hartmann was a friend of such diverse figures as

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...

and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

. From his experience of having known Walt Whitman, considered one of the great poets of the 19th century, he wrote ''Conversations with Walt Whitman'' (1895). He also wrote a collection of poetry in homage to Mallarmé, ''Naked Ghosts'' (1898). Around 1905, Hartmann was an occasional performer at the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Miner's Theater. His act involved a device which dispensed perfumes in a manner intended to be analogous to notes in a symphony, which was poorly received by the crowd. His poetry, deeply influenced by the Symbolists as well as orientalist literature, includes: * 1904's ''Drifting Flowers of the Sea and Other Poems'' * 1913's ''My Rubaiyat'' * 1915's ''Japanese Rhythms'' His works of criticism include ''Shakespeare in Art'' (1901) and ''Japanese Art'' (1904). During the 1910s, Hartmann let himself be crowned King of the Bohemians by Guido Bruno in New York's

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

. Hartmann wrote some of the earliest English language haiku. He was one of the first critics to write about

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

, with regular essays in

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...

's Camera Notes. Hartmann published criticism and conducted lecture tours under the pseudonym "Sidney Allen." He made a brief appearance in the Douglas Fairbanks film '' The Thief of Bagdad'' as the court magician. Later years found him living in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

and, by 1942, on his daughter's ranch outside

Banning, California Banning is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. Its population was 29,505 as of the 2020 census, down from 29,603 at the 2010 census. It is situated in the San Gorgonio Pass, also known as ''Banning Pass''. It is named for ...

. Due to his age and health conditions, Hartmann was one of only a few Japanese Americans on the West Coast to avoid the mass incarceration during World War II, although the FBI and local officials visited the ranch often to conduct investigations. In 1944, he died while visiting another daughter in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

. A collection of his papers is held at the University of California, Riverside, including correspondence related to his obtaining permission to remain in Banning during the war.

Personal life

Hartmann was a philosophical

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

who traveled in the New York anarchist social circle as a friend of

Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born Anarchism, anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europ ...

and

Alexander Berkman Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870June 28, 1936) was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing. Be ...

and as a drinking buddy of Hippolyte Havel. Though he was on the outskirts of the movement, he attended anarchist meetings, performed at the New York Ferrer Center, and met with

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...

during his visit to the United States.

Selected works

*''Christ: A Dramatic Poem in Three Acts'' (play, 1893) *''Buddha: A Drama in Twelve Scenes'' (play, 1897) *''Mohammed'' (play, 1899) *''Schopenhauer in the Air: Seven Stories'' (1899) *''Shakespeare in Art'' (1900) *''A History of American Art'' (1901) *''Japanese Art'' (1903) *''Drifting Flowers of the Sea and Other Poems'' (1904) *''Landscape and Figure Composition'' (1910) *''My Theory of Soul Atoms'' (1910) *''The Whistler Book'' (1910) *''My Rubaiyat'' (1913) *''Permanent Peace: Is it a Dream?'' (1915) *''Tanka and Haikai: Japanese Rhythms'' (1916) *''The Last Thirty Days of Christ'' (1920) *''Confucius: A Drama in Two Acts'' (play, 1923) *''Moses: A Drama in Six Episodes'' (play, 1934) *''Buddha, Confucius, Christ: Three Prophetic Plays'' (reprint collection, 1971)

References

Bibliography

External links

* *
Sadakichi Hartmann papers
at

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

Sadakichi Hartmann correspondence and manuscripts
at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...