Biographical Material
Berkman's own (tongue-in-cheek) synopsis in a letter to his publisher
Prison Memorabilia
Alexander Berkman (1870-1936)
The youngest of four children, Alexander Berkman (ne Ovsei Osipovich Berkman) was born in Vilna, Russia (today, Vilnius, Lithuania) on November 21, 1870. He grew up in St. Petersberg, the son of an affluent Jewish businessman. Berkman's uncle had been exiled to Siberia for revolutionary activities, so rebellion was part of the family lore. Berkman's own rebeliousness exhibited itself early, when as a student he was in a group which read Nihilist works and other forbidden literature. Attracted to radical ideas early, he was expelled from school after submitting an atheistic essay to his instructors. Expelled and without options (both of his parents died when he was young), Berkman emigrated to the United States in 1887 and settled in New York City. He quickly involved himself in the city's radical political communities, joining the fight to free the men convicted of the Haymarket Bombing. He was a well-known anarchist leader in the United States and life-long friend of Emma Goldman, a young Russian immigrant whom he met on her first day in New York City. The two became lovers and moved in together, remaining close friends for the rest of Berkman's life. He got work as a type setter for Johann Most's anarchist newspaper, Freiheit, and later worked with Goldman on Mother Earth and his own journal, The Blast. His dramatic attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick led to his imprisonment for fourteen years. In all, Berkman spent over twenty years in prison. Among his numerous agitational writings the best-known of his books are Prison Memoirs, and The Bolshevik Myth. He committed suicide on June 28, 1936.
Other Biographical links:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAberkman.htm
http://libcom.org/history/berkman-alexander-1870-1936
http://struggle.ws/ws99/ws56_berkman.html
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