Josiah Warren, an Annotated Bibliography

A number of people have had a hand in researching Warren's writings, and this is an attempt to summarize the bibliographical work on Warren as it currently stands. It owes a particular debt to Shawn Wilbur, whose extraordinary research on Warren informs this book throughout. Whole books, printed and bound in tiny editions in a shed behind Warren's house, may exist undiscovered.

(A) Books/booklets published during Warren's lifetime

(1) Equitable Commerce: A New Development of Principles as Substitutes for Laws and Governments, for the Harmonious Adjustment and Regulation of the Pecuniary, Intellectual, and Moral Intercourse of Mankind, Proposed as Elements of New Society. (New York, 1852). The primary source for Warren's thinking, edited by Stephen Pearl Andrews. Uses an eccentric typographical/indexing system in which themes are numbered and lettered in a hierarchy and then noted in the margins. The first edition was published in 1846: Andrews writes: "The main body of this book was published as far back as 1846. It has now undergone, at my request, a revisal by the author," who signs "Josiah Warren. New Harmony, Indiana, U.S., 1846." James J. Martin gives the following publishing history in a note. "A second edition appeared in 1849 while Warren was at 'Utopia' (Smith's Landing), Ohio, while a third was published in New York in 1852. [Martin treats True Civilization as an edition of EC]. . . . The fifth edition, posthumously released by Benjamin Tucker at Princeton, Massachusetts in 1875 bore the same title and content as the 1869 edition." Believe it or not, an 1869 edition was published under the title The former title of this work was "Equitable Commerce", but it is now ranked as the first part of True Civilization: a subject of vital and serious interest to all people; but most immediately to the men and women of labor and sorrow, at Cliftondale, Massachusetts. A number of small editions were published in the twentieth century.

(2) Practical details in equitable commerce, showing the workings, in actual experiment, during a series of years, of the social principles expounded in the works called "Equitable commerce." (New York: Fowlers and Wells, 1852), 115 pp. I am in a possession of a copy from the Houghton Library, Harvard. It is mostly in dialogue form, seemingly recording actual transactions etc. Something of a miscellany, it features a preface by Andrews, setting out the project of Modern Times. There are also theoretical cogitations, very much redundant with other writings. But it yields a narrative of Warren's projects between New Harmony and Modern Times, with many detailed transactions that Warren regarded as the data confirming his theory.

(3) Written Music Remodeled and Invested with the Simplicity of an Exact Science. Boston: John P. Jewett & co., 1860. 107 pp. An elaboration of Warren's work on musical notation in the 1840s, which was published as A new system of notation : intended to promote the more general cultivation & more just performance of music (New Harmony: 1843.) Also: A Collection of the Most Popular Church Music Written Upon Geometric or Scientific Principles (New Harmony, 1844).

(4) True Civilization: An Immediate Necessity and the Last Ground of Hope for Mankind, Being the Results and Conclusions of Thirty-Nine Years' Laborious Study and Experiments in Civilization As It Is, and in Different Enterprises for Reconstruction, by Josiah Warren, Counsellor in Equity. (Boston: 1863; reprint New York: Burt Franklin, 1967). A late restatement. It qualifies his anarchism to some extent with a sort of system of arbitration panels and addresses the Civil War. The table of contents, rather than running serially through the text, gives page numbers nonsequentially by theme. Chapter 4 reproduces the secions on economics of Equitable Commerce.

(5) Practical Applications of the Elementary Principles of True Civilization to the Minute Details of Everyday Life ("published by the author, Princeton, Mass., 1873), a 47 pp. booklet, narrating Warren's practical experiments starting with Tuscarawas. There is a copy in Houghton Library, Harvard.

(B) Periodicals

Warren's periodicals were mostly very small runs of a single or a few issues, printed by himself, and for which he fabricated the type, written entirely by himself. In some cases, the distinction between periodical and booklet is arbitrary.

The Peaceful Revolutionist. Apparently four issues were published in volume one. I have only located numbers 2 and 4, dated February 3, 1833 and April 5, 1833. (Wisconsin Historical Society). Pamphlet published under this title in May 1848, at Utopia, Ohio; "Volume 2, Number 1").

Herald of Equity (Cincinnati: 1841) (Working Men's Institute, New Harmony, IN)

Gazette of Equitable Commerce, vol. 1 no. 2, dated New Harmony September 1842, 8 pp. Material on the Time Store, Equitable Commerce etc. Contents of vol. 1 no. 1 or whether there were any other issues published is not known. (Indiana Historical Society)

Letter on Equitable Commerce, dated New Harmony, February, 1844. 16pp. (Indiana Historical Society)

The Quarterly Letter: Devoted to Showing the Practical Applications and Progress of Equity, a Subject of Serious Concern to All Classes, but Most Immediately To the Men and Women of Labor and Sorrow! Vol 1, No. 1 (dated October, 1867). Consists exclusively of a treatise by Warren: "Labor for Labor": narrates Warren's experiments up to Tuscarawas (New Harmony and Time Store); together with Practical Applications, provides the more or less continuous narrative presented here. (Labadie Collection, University of Michigan)

Periodical Letter on the principles and progress of the equity movement. 1854-1858. Published at Modern Times (Thompson Station), New York. Shawn Wilbur has identified seventeen issues.

(C) Articles, Broadsides, Pamphlets, etc

"Explanation of the Design and Arrangements of the Cooperative Magazine which has Recently Been Commenced. Western Tiller, 8 communications from June 1 to July 27, 1827. Signed "A Late Member of New Harmony"

"A Letter from Josiah Warren," Mechanics Free Press (May 10, 1828), 2.

"From 'The March of Mind'," New Harmony Gazette (Sep 10, 1828, p. 365)

"Time System for Labor Exchange," Western Tiller (5 articles) Sept/Oct 1828.

"Reduction in the Cost of Printing Apparatus, Cincinnati: 1830 (broadside).

"To the Friends of the Equal Exchange of Labor in the West," Free Enquirer, 2 (July 17, 1830), 301-2.

"Improvement in the Machinery of Law," The Free Enquirer, 2, 38 (July 17, 1830), 300.

"Reply to E. C.," Free Enquirer, 2, 42 (Aug 14, 1830), 332.

"Social Experiment," Free Enquirer, 3, 18 (February 16, 1831), 137.

"Written on Hearing of the Death of Camilla Wright," Free Enquirer, 5, 18 (February 23, 1833), 144. [poem]

"Introduction to a new printing apparatus, adapted to the wants and capacities of private citizens." Trenton, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, 1836.

"Manifesto," New Harmony, Ind. (leaflet) 1841. Re-printed by the Oriole Press at Berkeley Heights, N.J., 1952., with an introduction by Joseph Ishill.

"Music and the Sciences." American Journal of Music and Musical Visitor. Feb 16, 1846; 4, 19. 147.

Contributions to the Indiana Statesman, New Harmony (Feb 1 1845; March 7 1846); and a series of engravings: July 4; Aug 16; Oct 11; Dec 27 1845; Jan 31; Feb 14, 1846.

"Improvement in Compositions for Stereotype-Plates," US Patent #4479, April 25, 1849.

"Letter from Josiah Warren (September 25, 1849)." Boston Investigator, 19, 21 (September 25, 1849), 3.

"Positions Defined," Village of Modern Times (leaflet), 1854.

Josiah Warren, "Explanation," Boston Investigator, 23, 43 (February 22, 1854), 2.

"Modern Education." Long Island, NY, 1861. leaflet (2 pp.) dated December, 1861.

"Modern Government and Its True Mission, a Few Words for the American Crisis." n.p., 1862. signed "A Counsellor," March, 1862.

"On Mobs, I." The Boston Investigator, 33, 20 (September 23, 1863), 155.

"On Mobs, II." The Boston Investigator, 33, 21 (September 30, 1863), 163.

"The Emancipation of Labor," Boston, 1864

"A Letter to Louis Kossuth," Boston Investigator, 33, 41 (Feb. 17, 1864).

"The Principle of Equivalents. The Most Disagreeable Labor Entitled to the Highest Compensation," n.p., 1865.

"Woman and the Money Question," The Revolution, 4, (July 1869), 29.

"Superficialities," The Revolution, 4, 6 (August 12, 1869), 83.

Josiah Warren, "Response to the call of the National Labor Union for essays on the following subjects," Boston, 1871. [8pp.]

Controversy w/Andrews in Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly. July-Sep., 1871

"The Motives for CommunismãHow It Worked and What It Led To," Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, IV, 14 (February 17, 1872), 6. This was a series. Article II," Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, IV, 15 (February 24, 1872), 7. Article III," Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, IV, 16 (March 2, 1872), 6. Article IV, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, IV, 17 (March 16, 1872), 5. Article V, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, IV, 22 (April 13, 1872), 4. Article VI, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, IV, 23 (April 20, 1872), 5 [listed as "IV"]. Article VII," Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, IV, 23 (April 27, 1872), 4. Article VIII, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, V, 2 (May 25, 1872), 14. Article IX, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, V, 5 (June 15, 1872), 3. Article X, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, V, 19 (April 12, 1873), 3. Article XI," Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, V, 21 (April 26, 1873), 3.

"Letter to The American Workman" (March 2, 1872).

"Letter to E. H. Heywood," Princeton, MA, 1873. Reprinted in Index, 5 (Apr. 30, 1874), and in Bailie's biography as "Josiah Warren's Last Letter."

"Money: The Defects of Money Are the 'Roots of All Evil'," Charlestown, MA, 1873.

"A Few Words to the Pioneers," The Word (Princeton Mass., July, 1873), followed by a series of articles in subsequent issues.

"The Cost Principle." Index, 4 (Dec. 11, 1873), pp. 504-5.

"Labor the Only Ground of Price." The Index, 5 (May 28, 1874), pp. 260-1.

"A few words to the writer in a paper called 'the Circular' on 'The Sovereignty of the Individual" (undated) [Labadie Collection]

"Emancipation of Labor" (Boston: 1864) [Working Man's Institute, New Harmony, IN]

"Young America" (pamphlet, no date) [Working Man's Institute, New Harmony, IN]

(D) Letters and Notebooks

Letter addressed "My dear Sir." Thompson's Station, Long Island, New York, March 12 1853; addresses various subjects including Warren's printing experiments. [Labadie Collection; Other letters are not legible due to bleed-through.]

Hand-written document titled "A Scrap of History" ("by the author of TC and EC etc"; thus, late): hand-written memoir of Owen's New Harmony, extending through some scraps of notes; a shopping list and a note on chains and their breaking. [Labadie Collection]

A set of what are apparently lecture notes, too fragile to xerox. Described by Martin in Men Against the State. [Working Man's Institute, New Harmony, IN]

"Notebook D": a book-length handwritten notebook used by Warren at widely divergent stages of his career (1840, 1860, 1873). It overlaps with Equitable Commerce and other writings, but also contains some previously unknown material. It was edited by the painstaking efforts of Ann Caldwell Butler, for an M.A. thesis at Ball State University, in July 1968. The material used here is based on Butler's version. [Working Man's Institute, New Harmony, IN]

Letters to Stephen Pearl Andrews (3) about stereotype plates and publishing plans (photocopies), 1850 ≠1851 [Working Man's Institute]

Reichert mentions 21 letters exchanged between Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews contained in the catalogues of Charles Coffin Jewitt at the Houghton Library, Harvard. Reichert characterizes them as showing how close the two men were in their ideas and projects in the early 1850s.

(E) Major Sources by Others

Stephen Pearl Andrews, The Science of Society (Weston, Mass.: M&S Press, 1970 [1851]).

Explicitly presented as an exposition of Warren's ideas, this book was no doubt greeted with some relief by anyone who had tried to read Warren. Nevertheless in crankery Andrews far outcompeted Warren, and he was soon to be seen inventing a universal language ("Alwato") and answering all questions whatsoever in his system of "universology." It has often been stated, including apparently by Warren, that this book is the best embodiment in writing of Warren's philosophy. As Wunderlich points out, it is an attempt to reconcile Warren and Fourier: an extremely unlikely project.

William Bailie, Josiah Warren, the First American Anarchist (New York: Herbert C. Roseman, 1971 [1906]). The only and of course fundamental biography of Warren, a bit on the hagiographic side to be absolutely in good taste.

Charles Shively, "A Remarkable American: Josiah Warren, 1798-1874," Undergraduate honors thesis, housed at Harvard.

Ezra Heywood, "Yours or Mine? The True Basis of Property" first printed as a pamphlet in 1876, Princeton, MA. Collected in Essential Works of Ezra Heywood, ed. Martin Blatt (Westin, MA: M&S Press, 1985), pp. 71-104. Also consult the Heywood essay "Hard Cash," collected in the same volume. Very able expositions of Warrenian economics.

James J. Martin, Men Against the State (Colorado Springs: Ralph Myles, 1970 [1953]). This is still the best treatment of American individualist anarchism, and begins with several chapters displaying prodigious research on Warren.

John Humphrey Noyes, History of American Socialisms (New York: Dover, 1966 [1870]), chapter 10. A sharp and fair assessment (characteristic of Noyes) with material from The Peaceful Revolutionist and an interview with a resident of Modern Times (probably not Warren or Andrews).

Noyes's chapter is based on the "A.J. Macdonald Papers on American Communities" at the Beinecke collection at Yale. This material arose in Macdonald's travels, interviews and collecting of ephemera from American ideal communities. It contains considerable material on Warren. MacDonald's typescript is hard to decipher, but this material also includes the whole of Peaceful Revolutionist, vol 2, no 1, dated Utopia (Ohio), May 1848. Also there are some drawings of Modern Times by MacDonald.

William O. Reichert, Partisans of Freedom (Bowling Green: Popular Press, 1976). Exemplary in its connection of Warren to Emerson, among other things. Reichert calls Warren the "chief architect of libertarianism."

Madelein Stern, "Every Man His Own Printer: The Typographical Experiments of Josiah Warren," Printing History, vol. II, no. 2, 1980. Quite a delightful and well-researched treatment of Warren the printer.

Roger Wunderlich, Low Living and High Thinking at Modern Times, New York (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992). Wunderlich's is by far the best scholarly work on Warren, with sources no one else consulted. Wunderlich got a Ph.D. from Stony Brook at age 72 or so and became more or less the national historian of Long Island.