Paul Goodman (1911–1972), was a lot of things to a lot of different people. To the psychotherapy world, he is known as one of the co-founders of Gestalt theory. To the literary world, he was a novelist. Perhaps his most famous novel is The Empire City, a story that follows a ’50s rebel in New York City. But he’s also well known as the author of Growing Up Absurd, and his works were hugely influential on the ’60s student radical movement, a movement he later criticized as sometimes both too dogmatic and too fickle.

Wikipedia:

Paul Goodman

Fiction available through Amazon.com:

• Grand Piano Or the Almanac of Alienation
• The State of Nature
• The Copernican Revolution
• The Break-Up of Our Camp and Other Stories
• The Dead of Spring
• Parents’ Day
• The Empire City: A Novel of New York City
• Making do
• Adam & His Works
• A Ceremonial
• The Facts of Life
• Don Juan: Or, the Continuum of the Libido
• The Galley to Mytilene

Non-fiction works available for online reading:

From the Preservation Institute

William Godwin (1756–1836), considered by some “the first anarchist,” did indeed lay down an impressive amount of anti-state theory, in part in his remarkably titled Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness. He also, however, wrote what is considered the first mystery novel: Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams. He was married to Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the first feminists, and fathered Mary Shelley, one of the first science-fiction authors. He was libeled and persecuted heavily for his political be-liefs and spent much of his life living as anonymously as possible.

Wikipedia:

William Godwin

Fiction available from Amazon.com:

• Caleb Williams
• St. Leon
• Fleetwood
• Damon and Delia
• Cloudesley

Fiction available to read on Google Books:

• Caleb Williams
• Mandeville
• St. Leon
• Fleetwood
• Cloudesley

Fiction available to download from Project Gutenberg:

• Caleb Williams
• Damon and Delia
• Imogen

Kevin Doyle (1961–), a member of Ireland’s anarchist Worker Solidarity Movement, has been a writer of fiction and non-fiction for years. His stories have appeared in a number of magazines, his interview with Noam Chomsky has appeared in Chomsky On Anarchism, and he has an unpublished novel, Step F. He’s been involved in a number of campaigns over the years from pro-choice battles to No Borders campaigns. When I told him about this book project, he had some interesting things to say:

I think fiction is very important in our lives and in how we understand the world we find ourselves in. I think it is important to encourage and promote more writing from below. Some regard the writing process as “waffle” and a “waste of time”—maybe even “a diversion from the real struggle.” I wouldn’t agree at all. Writing from below is an essential part for me of creating an alternative culture and vital if we are to move anarchism into the broad center of world politics where it must be one day.

Author’s blog:

kfdoyle.wordpress.com

Jim Dodge (1945–) is a bioregionalist theorist, an anarchist, and a writer. His novels explore a sort of modern folklore, often including magic amidst otherwise real-world events. In his bioregionalist essay “Living by Life”, he says that anarchy is an intrinsic value to bioregionalism, and says: “Anarchy doesn’t mean out of control, it means out of their control.”

Books available from Amazon.com:

• Fup
• Not Fade Away
• Stone Junction

Wikipedia:

Jim Dodge

Voltairine De Cleyre (1866–1912) was a poet and theorist who converted to anarchism in 1887 after the Haymarket trial shattered her faith in the American justice system. She was an early believer in “anarchism without adjectives,” which meant that she didn’t choose to identify specifically with communist, mutaualist, or individualist anarchism. She fought voraciously for the rights of women. The most famous piece of her fiction is “The Chain Gang,” a short story included in The Gates of Freedom.

Wikipedia:

Voltairine de Cleyre

Essays online:

From the Anarchist Archives

Audiobooks online:

From LibroVox

General fan site:

voltairine.org

Steve Cullen (n.d.) is the author of The Last Capitalist: A Dream of a New Utopia as well as a non-fiction book exploring the libertarian critique of education, both published by Freedom Press in the UK.

From Ben Beck’s Anarchism and Science Fiction:

Published by London’s anarchist Freedom Press, [The Last Capitalist] is essentially an anarchist utopia set in a future Britain. The story involves a quest for the eponymous capitalist, and contributes greatly to the book’s readability. England has been renamed ‘Atopia’, and is explicitly anarchist, but the state and capitalism have pretty much crumbled world-wide. Alternative polities exist, to reflect local conditions and aspirations; among these is a republic on the Isle of Man, based on delegate democracy. In Atopia everything is voluntary, education is through free schools, and the economy is based on barter. Informed by green principles, technology is nevertheless sufficiently sophisticated to include high-altitude remote-controlled airships, to maintain satellite communications. Social life is fuelled by plenty of real ale (with an explicit admiring nod to CAMRA) and an easy attitude to sex. The book is joyful and optimistic.

Novel available from AK Press:

• The Last Capitalist

CrimethInc. (1995–) is an open group identity: anyone can compose a text or carry out an action and claim it for CrimethInc. In addition to organizing events, several CrimethInc. cells are known for producing books, magazines, records, and the like. Aside from allegedly non-fiction compositions such as Days of War, Nights of Love, the collective has published several works of fiction, including The Secret World of Duvbo and The Secret World of Terijian, as well as Expect Resistance, which mixes narrative and non-fiction throughout.

An anonymous member of a CrimethInc. cell was interviewed in Mythmakers and Lawbreakers.

Wikipedia:

CrimethInc.

Main site:

Crimethinc.com

Fiction books available online from CrimethInc.:

• Expect Resistance
• The Secret World of Terijian

Alex Comfort (1920–2000), the author of the best-selling The Joy of Sex, said that he would much rather be remembered for his anarchism, his pacifism, and his novels (which include On This Side of Nothing). He also wrote an essay, The Novel and Our Time, exploring the novel as an agent of liberation.

Wikipedia:

Alex Comfort

Novels available from Amazon.com: (many of his novels are quite rare at this point)

• On this side nothing
• Tetrarch
• Imperial Patient: The Memoirs of Nero’s Doctor
• The Philosophers

The Catastraphone Orchestra (2006–) might be one of the only bands of musicians that writes fiction together. A collection of chain-smokers, mad scientists, and drug-addled minds, they write in the long-antiquated “seasonal” style of fiction as well as penning manifestos and journalistic forays into the past.

Stories available online:

• “Mother of the Dispossessed” in SteamPunk Magazine #1
• “Unbound Muscle” in SteamPunk Magazine #2
• “Antonio’s Answer” in SteamPunk Magazine #4

Other, non-fiction work by The Catastrophone Orchestra has appeared in the freely downloadable SteamPunk Magazine as well as on a no-longer-updated LiveJournal page.

Professor Calamity from The Catastrophone Orchestra was interviewed about anarchism and fiction in Mythmakers and Lawbreakers.

Chris Carlsson (1957–), a San Francisco activist and anarchist, is probably best known for his non-fiction book Nowtopia and for being one of the founders of the bicycle protest movement Critical Mass. He was a founder and longtime editor of Processed World, a magazine for dissatisfied office workers that started in 1981. He’s also written a novel, After the Deluge, exploring an anarchist society in a post-collapse San Francisco.

Novel available from AK Press:

• After the Deluge

Chris Carlsson has both a blog, The Nowtopian, and a plain ole website, chriscarlsson.com.