7 h 21 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 21 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does freedom mean when love, work, and the world around you keep putting it to the test?
In An Anarchist Woman, Hutchins Hapgood presents the life of a woman he calls Esther Dolson, a name that protects her identity. Through her account, you enter a New York of immigrants, radicals, and bohemians, where arguments about labor, wages, and power reach into daily life.
Esther turns against the order around her and seeks something different in love and work. Anarchism becomes more than a set of ideas: it shapes her wish to live as an equal, without becoming anyone's property. Hapgood's portrait follows the personal cost of dissent, rather than offering a tidy political argument.
What you’ll discover
- A city of dissenters Enter a New York where immigrants and radicals argue over labor, wages, and power.
- Freedom beyond a slogan Follow Esther as she tests what freedom can mean in the choices of daily life.
- Love without ownership Explore her wish for a bond with a man that preserves her equality.
- One woman's own account Hear why Esther rejects enforced custom and what she hopes to find instead.
- The personal cost of dissent Discover what turning against the established order costs a woman who wants freedom.
Who will love it
Readers who love real lives revealed through personal letters will enjoy this memoir. It also suits those drawn to working-class Chicago around 1900 and to the personal side of radical ideas.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A slum childhood shapes a restless girl
- Respectable employers teach Marie their cruelty
- A taste of freedom, then a fall
- Katie the cook gives Marie a mother's love
- Terry grows from an Irish tenement to rebellion
- Terry and Marie choose to live outside the rules
- The Rogues' Gallery becomes a salon of outcasts
- Marie and Terry read, argue, and doubt the movement
- Jealousy and hunger break the Salon apart
- Marie rebels and Terry stands alone
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An Anarchist Woman
by Hutchins Hapgood · 1909
A Chicago factory girl and an Irish tanner turned anarchist build a salon for outcasts in a slum flat.
Challenging5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What happens when a girl from a Chicago slum, beaten at home and working in a lye factory at twelve, meets a gaunt Irish tanner who calls himself an anarchist? Hutchins Hapgood, a journalist and writer, tells that story in An Anarchist Woman.
An Anarchist Woman at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 10 min3 h 20 min fast, 4 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 59,400 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1909by Hutchins Hapgood
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A slum childhood shapes a restless girl
Hapgood meets Marie when she is twenty-three, and she has lived enough for a woman twice her age. She was born in a Chicago slum in 1884. Her father is a machinist who is often out of work and drinks. Her mother is cruel. Both parents beat the child.
To Marie the street is paradise and home is hell. She leaves school after two years, and her mother swears she is fourteen when she is not yet twelve.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1909
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 45 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Hapgood, Hutchins. An Anarchist Woman. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-anarchist-woman.
Hapgood, H. (2026). An anarchist woman. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-anarchist-woman (Original work published 1909)
Hapgood, Hutchins. An Anarchist Woman. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-anarchist-woman.
@book{hapgood2026anarchist,
author = {Hapgood, Hutchins},
title = {An Anarchist Woman},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-anarchist-woman},
note = {First published 1909}
}
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What is An Anarchist Woman about?
It follows Marie, a Chicago factory girl and servant born in 1884, and Terry, an Irish tanner turned anarchist. Hapgood tells their years together, their salon of outcasts, and their breakup, largely through their own letters.
Is An Anarchist Woman a true story?
It is presented as a true portrait. Hapgood describes real people he knew in Chicago, using their letters and conversations, and he names real events such as the Haymarket bomb and visits by Emma Goldman and Haywood.
Who are Marie, Terry, and Katie?
Marie is the young working woman at the center of the book. Terry is the older tanner and anarchist who teaches her. Katie is the German cook who loves Marie like a mother and supports the household.
The author
Hutchins Hapgood
1869–1944 · American journalist and anarchist
Hutchins Hapgood (1869–1944) was an American journalist, author, and individualist anarchist. He was born in Chicago and died in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He worked as a journalist in New York City. His books include The Spirit of the Ghetto (1902), The Autobiography of a Thief (1903), and An Anarchist Woman (1909).
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