My Further Disillusionment In Russia
Emma Goldman
y Further Disillusiosiment By Emma Goldman Being a Continuation of Miss Goldmans Experiences in Russia as given in My Disillusionment in Russia C r T 4l fi If M I 3 - I, Garden City New York Doubleday, Page Company 1924 y ITE IN THE UNiria STATE AT THE COUNTRY LIFE , CARDEK CITV, . Y. Hr st Edition PUBLISHERS NOTE SOME years ago Emma Goldman was de ported from this country and went to Russia to investigate personally what she believed to be the nearest approach to a Utopia which the world had yet produced. Her experiences so thoroughly disillusioned her that she conceived it to be her duty to set forth these experiences and her conclusions, which she did in a book entitled My Disillusionment in Russia The rights in this material she sold to an American newspaper syndicate from whom we purchased the book rights, and by whom we were furnished with the copy for the book. We published the book under date of October 26, 1923, and not until it was in circulation did we learn that it was minus the last twelve chapters which had never been turned over to us by the newspaper syndicate, nor had any intimation been given us that the copy turned over to us was incomplete. While the conclusion of the book as we published it was abrupt it was not 64521122 vi PUBLISHERS 5 NOTE more so than is frequently the case and, there fore, there was no internal evidence to indicate its incompleteness. We are now rectifying this serious error by the publication in a separate volume of the twelve missing chapters under the title, My Further Disillusionment in Russia. This material is even more important in its revelations and of even greater interest than that already pub lished. PREFACE THE annals of literature tell of books expurgated, of whole chapters eliminated or changed beyond recognition. But I believe it has rarely happened that a work should be published with more than a third of it left out and without the reviewers being aware of the fact. This doubtful distinction has fallen to the lot of my work on Russia. The story of that painful experience might well make another chapter, but for the present it is sufficient to give the bare facts of the case. My manuscript was sent to the original pur chaser in two parts, at different times. Subse quently the publishing house of Doubleday, Page Co. bought the rights to my work, but when the first printed copies reached me I dis covered to my dismay that not only had my original title, My Two Years in Russia been changed to My Disillusionment in Russia, but that the last twelve chapters were entirely missing, including my Afterword which is, at least to myself, the most vital part. vii viii PREFACE There followed an exchange of cables and letters, which gradually elicited the fact that Doubleday, Page Co. had secured my MSS. from a literary agency in the good faith that it was complete. By some conspiracy of circum stances the second instalment of my work either failed to reach the original purchaser or was lost in his office. At any rate, the book was pub lished without any ones suspecting its incom pleteness. The present volume contains the chapters missing from the first edition, and I deeply ap preciate the devotion of my friends who have made the appearance of this additional issue pos sible in justice to myself and to my readers. The adventures of my MSS. are not without their humorous side, which throws a peculiar light on the critics. Of almost a hundred Amer ican reviewers of my work only two sensed its incompleteness. And, incidentally, one of them is not a regular critic but a librarian. Rather a reflection on professional acumen or conscientiousness. It were a waste of time to notice the criti cism of those who have either not read the book or lacked the wit to realize that it was unfin ished. Of all the alleged reviews 1 only two PREFACE ix deserve consideration as written by earnest and able men those of Henry Alsberg and H. L. Mencken. Mr...