FOREWORDS

Until I commenced to publish translations of Bakunin's writings, and accounts of incidents in his career, in the Herald of Revolt (1910-14), The Spur (1914-21), The Commune (1923-29), and The Council (1923-33), little of the great Russian Nihilist's life or thought was to be found in English except his "God and the State" - itself but an indigestible fragment. I published an abridged edition of his work in August, 1920, and issued, shortly afterwards, my "life" of Bakunin. In the present book, that life has been revised and re-written completely. All the essays from Bakunin's pen published by me have been collected and will be published as a separate and complete work.

From the foreword to the 1920 biography, dated from "Bakunin House, Glasgow, N.W., November, 1920," I select the following passage, explanatory of my reason for publishing a study of Bakunin : -

"How far persons may be deemed the embodiment of epochs is a debatable question. It is, at least, certain that history gains in fascination from being treated as a constant succession of biographies. Assuredly, more than Luther and his circle were necessary