William Giraldi for The Baffler
Some writers are destined to have two deaths—the first in life, and the second in memory. The lucky ones can be resurrected from that second death by cultural circumstance and the aid of overseeing angels, irked by injustice, believing these Lazaruses should be helped from their tombs. In 2004, Susan Sontag opened her essay “Unextinguished” with this query, much to the present case: “How to explain the obscurity of one of the most compelling of twentieth-century ethical and literary heroes, Victor Serge?”
In commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Haymarket Books has compiled a list of essential books for those interested in learning the lessons of the first successful workers' revolution.
The recently released Communist Insurgent tells the life story of French revolutionary Louis-Auguste Blanqui, and with it the history of a period of extraordinary social and political upheaval. Haymarket Books interviewed the author, Doug Enaa Greene, to understand the relevance of an often maligned or neglected figure. We publish this interview to mark the anniversary of Blanqui's death on 1 January 1881.
