Synthesized answer
Emma Goldman initially resisted writing her memoirs because she felt she was still living her life too intensely—"what need to write about it?" [1]. She held the philosophical conviction that one should only write about one's life after reaching "a good philosophic age," capable of viewing events "impersonally and detachedly" [1]. She also considered herself "still adolescently young" and lacking the necessary leisure for concentrated writing [1].
Her change of mind came during "enforced European inactivity," when reading biographies and autobiographies led her to discover that "old age, far from ripening wisdom and mellowness, is too often fraught with senility, narrowness, and petty rancor" [2]. Unwilling to risk such a calamity, she "began to think seriously about writing my life" [2]. The passages do not specify a single triggering event beyond this realization, but they show that her initial reluctance was overcome by a fear that waiting longer might produce a flawed, bitter memoir rather than a wise one.
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
← Living My Life by Emma Goldman Volume 2 → New York: Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1931. 3161772 Living My Life Emma Goldman IN APPRECIATION S uggestions that I write my memoirs came to me when I had barely begun to live, and continued all through the years. But I never paid heed to the proposal. I was living my life intensely -- what need to write about it? Another reason for my reluctance was the conviction I entertained that one should write about one's life only when one had ceased to stand in the very torrent of it. "When one has reached a good philosophic age," I used to tell my friends,…
ng. My enforced European inactivity left me enough time to read a great deal, including biographies and autobiographies. I discovered, much to my discomfiture, that old age, far from ripening wisdom and mellowness, is too often fraught with senility, narrowness, and petty rancor. I would not risk such a calamity, and I began to think seriously about writing my life. The great difficulty that faced me was lack of historical data for my work. Almost everything in the way of books, correspondence, and similar material that I had accumulated during the thirty-five years of my life in the United…
Far from virtue bringing reward, it was my iniquity that gave me what I needed most -- the true atmosphere of past days. Ben Reitman, Ben Capes, Jacob Margolis, Agnes Inglis, Harry Weinberger, Van, my romantic admirer Leon Bass, and scores of other friends readily responded to my request to send me my letters. My, niece, Stella Ballantine, had kept everything I had written her during my imprisonment in the Missouri penitentiary. She, as well as my dear friend M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, had also preserved my Russian correspondence. In short, I was soon put into possession of over one thousand…
move. My staunch friends Leonard D. Abbott, Agnes Inglis, W. S. Van Valkenburgh, and others soon put my doubts to shame. Agnes, the founder of the Labadie Library in Detroit, containing the richest collection of radical and revolutionary material in America, came to my aid with her usual readiness. Leonard did his share, and Van spent all his free time in research work for me. In the matter of European data I knew I could turn to the two best historians in our ranks: Max Nettlau and Rudolf Rocker. No further need to worry with such an array of coworkers. Still I was not appeased. I needed…
it, stayed long or little, and passed out. Their love, as well as their hate, has gone into making my life worth while. Living My Life is my tribute and my gratitude to them all. EMMA GOLDMAN Saint-Tropez, France January 1931 Volume one Chapter 1 I T WAS THE 15TH OF AUGUST 1889, THE DAY OF MY ARRIVAL IN New York City. I was twenty years old. All that had happened in my life until that time was now left behind me, cast off like a worn-out garment. A new world was before me, strange and terrifying. But I had youth, good health, and a passionate ideal. Whatever the new held in store for me I was…
More questions about this book
- Explain, as if to a peer, the precise legal conditions and timeline that allowed Emma Goldman's "Living My Life" to enter the public domain in the United States, and what this status practically means for its use today.
- Critique Emma Goldman's concept of a "philosophic age" as the ideal time to write an autobiography. What are the potential advantages of such detachment, and what might be the inherent limitations or costs of waiting until one has "ceased to stand in the very torrent" of life?
- How did "enforced European inactivity," initially perceived as a hardship, paradoxically become a catalyst for Emma Goldman's decision to write her autobiography? What does this suggest about the relationship between external circumstances, leisure, and creative output?
- Emma Goldman states, "old age, far from ripening wisdom and mellowness, is too often fraught with senility, narrowness, and petty rancor." How did this observation, seemingly a pessimistic one, become a *driving force* for her to write, and what does it imply about the nature of wisdom and self-preservation?