Christmas reading

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Emma Goldman's autobiography "Living My Life" (at least vol. 1) is a good source for the US anarchist scene.  Her lover, Alexander Berkman antempted to assasinate Robber Baron Henry Frick, and she was also acquainted with Mckinley's assassin, Czolgosz.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Sterling Clover <s.clover at gmail.com>
>Sent: Dec 9, 2006 8:05 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Christmas reading
>
> From my bookshelf, a ripping read is The Autobiography of Big Bill  
>Haywood, whose early sections also capture the freewheeling farmer/ 
>entrepreneur types from which plenty of miners were drawn. Mark  
>Wyman's Hard Rock Epic is a more scholarly take, and then the  
>appropriate sections from Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy are pretty vivid  
>as well and I'm sure Pynchon has some deliberate echos of those in  
>particular in ATD. That's just a start though. I'd be interested to  
>see what other folks suggest. I'd also be interested in some pointers  
>towards good reads on Italian anarchism (speaking of which, can  
>anyone source that miner's myth about the snake-beast with some  
>historic documentation? it seems fairly authentic. [the myth, i mean,  
>not the beast itself])
>
>While I'm on the topic of good suggested background readings, let me  
>recommend Luc Sante's Lowlife on the NY Bowry, which I'd read  
>recently before ATD and had plenty of good background -- the sections  
>on scams, entertainment and games of chance also bore relevance to  
>some of the stuff set elsewhere. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if  
>Pynchon drew some of at least his *sense* of the scene and period  
>directly from this book.
>
>--S
>
>On Dec 9, 2006, at 7:19 PM, John Pendergast wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> A month or so ago, as we were all gearing up for the big read, I  
>> vaguely remember a recommendation for a history of the Colorado  
>> labor movemement. Maybe there was more than one. Now that I have  
>> finished AtD, and before I embark on a second read, I want to read  
>> up on some background history of the events in the novel. Off-list  
>> is fine.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> John P.
>>
>