What’s To Be Done? A Romance, Benj. R. Tucker, translator

Boston: Benj. R. Tucker, 1886. First English Edition. Wraps. Very good. First English Language Edition of ?

TCHERNYCHEWSKY (Chernyshevsky), Nikolai. Whats To Be Done? A Romance. Benj. R. Tucker, trans. Boston: Benj. R. Tucker, 1886. Frontispiece with tissue guard + TP + [3] - 4 = translators preface + [5] - 329 + 3 leaves = ads. Octavo. First English Language Edition. SCARCE in original wrappers!


The first English translation [of ?- Whats To Be Done?] was made by one of the most outspoken American anarchists. Benjamin Tucker knew no Russian, and most likely translated this from the French of 1875. This translation first appeared as a serial in the anarchist biweekly Liberty from May 1884 to May 1886, thus lending priority to this US edition. Tucker somehow omits one of the most important sections of the novelVeras Fourth Dreamwhich presents the fullest depiction of Chernyshevskys vision.

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker was an American individualist anarchist and free market libertarian socialist. He was the editor and publisher of the American individualist anarchist periodical Liberty (18811908). Tucker harshly opposed state socialism and was a supporter of free-market socialism and libertarian socialism (which he termed anarchist or anarchistic socialism) as well as a follower of mutualism. He connected the classical economics of Adam Smith and the Ricardian socialists as well as that of Josiah Warren, Karl Marx, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon to socialism. Later in his life, Tucker converted to Max Stirner's egoism (Wikipedia).


In Anthropological Principle in Philosophy" Chernyshevsky adopted a form of Benthamite Utilitarianism that rejects all appeal to any kind of traditional (Christian) moral values. Good and evil are defined in terms of utility and man seeks primarily what gives him pleasure and satisfies his egoistic interest, but since he is a rational creature, man eventually learns through enlightenment that the most lasting utility lies in identifying his own self-interest with that of the majority of his fellows. Once this realization has dawned, the enlightened individual attains the level of a selfishly unselfish rational egoism, which, according to Chernyshevsky, is the highest form of human development. What Is To Be Done? is the novel that presents those transitional people moving from tradition towards collective enlightenment. See item #21 for more on this novel in its first Russian appearance.

CONDITION: Very good to near fine in original publisher's printed wrappers. Minor edgewear and some loss to head of spine. Pages clean and bright.

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