James Herod Papers, 1968-2007

Summary

Creator:

Herod, James

Abstract:

The collection consist of copies of the author's two published books; about a third of his estimated fifty essays; several pamphlets; a limited series of mostly email correspondence dating from the turn of the millennium; and a small set of papers documenting workplace policies and politics. Of special interest are the thorough correspondence with George Salzman; the hard-to-find Autonomous Marxism: An Annotated Course Syllabus and Bibliography, by Harry Cleaver; and the set of documents pertaining to the Lucy Parsons Center.

Extent:

1 linear ft. (1 box)

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Tom Quigley, Kathleen Dow

Background

Scope and Content:

The collection consist of copies of the author's two published books; about a third of his estimated fifty essays; several pamphlets; a limited series of mostly email correspondence dating from the turn of the millennium; and a small set of papers documenting workplace policies and politics. Of special interest are the thorough correspondence with George Salzman; the hard-to-find Autonomous Marxism: An Annotated Course Syllabus and Bibliography , by Harry Cleaver; and the set of documents pertaining to the Lucy Parsons Center.

The subject matter is diverse: topics include the destruction of capitalism, radical democracy, play, anarchism, health, the politics of protest, HIV and AIDS, commercial films, sectarianism, revolution, indigenism, majority rule, and schooling.

Many of the materials represented in this collection have been published on Mr. Herod's website http://jamesherod.info. Additional essays appear there, along with notes on a variety of topics.

It is hoped that one day additional materials from the website will be included in this collection. Noticeably missing from both locations are photographs, older correspondence, and any supporting ephemera or newspaper documentation.

Many items in the collection have been edited or annotated by Mr. Herod. Some have been written under pen name Jared James.

The James Herod Papers are arranged in four series: CORRESPONDENCE; ESSAYS; PUBLICATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES; and WORKPLACE ACTIVISM.

CORRESPONDENCE. The Correspondence series consists of personal correspondence as well as general correspondence in the form of open letters or participation in online forums. It consists mostly of e-mail written between 1998 and 2001. Personal correspondence consists almost entirely of email exchanged with George Salzman. General Correspondence includes open letters and participation in online forums.

ESSAYS. The collection includes 17 of about fifty essays spanning the author's adult life from 1968 to the present.

PUBLICATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES include the privately published Papers from the Struggle (1987) and Getting Free (1998 and 2007). It also includes the author's pamphlets and book reviews from What's Left in Boston . The collection includes a copy of Harry Cleaver's Autonomous Marxism: An Annotated Course Syllabus and Bibliography.

WORKPLACE ACTIVISM documents the author's time spent with the Boston Typographical Union, Dorchester Community News, and, most notably, with the Lucy Parsons Center (formerly the Red Book Store).

Other publications were donated with the collection but have been cataloged in other parts of the Labadie Collection. These include:

The New York City Star (first two issues)

What's Left in Boston (set of twenty-five issues)

Jill Boskey's The Split at The Liberated Guardian

Pamphlets and other materials from The Committee of Returned Volunteers

Biographical / Historical:

The following biographical sketch is taken from James Herod's website:

About James Herod

This is an autobiographical blurb I wrote for the Fiftieth Anniversary Memorial Book for my 1953 High School Class Reunion

(Slightly edited. This was on hand. I may try to post a more orthodox resume later, although it may be hard to force an unorthodox life into an orthodox resume.) Born in 1935 in Pryor, Oklahoma.

The high point of my life was getting to participate in the world revolution of 1968. I was at Columbia University in New York City at the time and took part in it from that vantage point. I sort of divide my life into Before 1968 and After 1968. Until 1968 I was in school and college, except for the three years in the army; after 1968 I devoted myself to the revolutionary movement to achieve direct democracy in America and the world. Two other really good years before 1968 though were the year I spent as a senior at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon (with travels in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine) in 1956-57, and the year I spent in Sinop, Turkey, on the Black Sea in 1959-60, while in the Army (with a follow-up summer in Turkey in 1963 as a graduate student). I had two very good summers in work camps in France and Lebanon in 1956, and again in 1957 in Denmark and Sweden. I spent a spectacular month in Cuba in August 1969, and a fabulous two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico in June 2002.

Two prolonged good periods for me were from 1968 to 1975, participating in the new left's revolutionary movement, and from 1987 to 1998, helping to keep alive a radical bookstore (left libertarian). This store served as a sort of watering hole for the city's progressive community; everyone came there. It was a tremendously exciting place. I learned a lot during those years, as well as helped keep up a left perspective during that dark period of reaction.

The years of formal college education -- at Graceland College (1953-55), University of Kansas (1955-56), American University of Beirut (1956-57), and Columbia University (1961-1968) -- were largely spent in frustration because it was impossible to gain an understanding of what was going on in the world within that institutional framework, at least during that historical period. The two worst periods were the three years in the army, 1958-61 (mollified only slightly by the year in Turkey), and being down and out on Manhattan's lower east side in the late 1970s. The years 1976 to 1986 were pretty much lost (to wage-slavery, mostly), except for some minor union struggles, and for continued study of emancipatory social thought. My biggest disappointments (other than never getting married) are my two failed attempts to launch radical publishing projects in the mid-seventies and early nineties. My biggest surprise is that I never even in my worst dreams imagined I would end up my life living under a fascist government. My most abiding interest, since my teenage years, has been for social philosophy, especially (since 1968) radical social philosophy.

For money, I've worked at odd jobs. My last job was as an industrial painter at a large truck terminal in North Kansas City. My longest job (nine years) was at a major city newspaper (1990-98), working in the production department (page paste-up, ad make-up, proofreading, typesetting, and running the big digitized photo electronic type machines and film developers). During most of the eighties I worked off and on in various overnight commercial ad shops as a typesetter and proofreader. Otherwise, I've worked at just about everything: oil fields, cannery, wheat fields, construction, lumbering, steel mill, auto assembly line, research, college teaching, copy shops, binderies, bookstore, delivery, dish washing, maintenance, secretarial, day labor, and so forth.

Since retiring in November of 2000 I've been writing books and essays, as well as participating in the anarchist movement. In May-June 2002, I compiled a book-length bibliography called “A Partially Annotated Bibliography in English for the Libertarian Left and Progressive Populists in the United States”, although it is not quite finished and may remain so. In May 2007, I finally got a printed edition of my book on anarchist revolutionary strategy called Getting Free: Creating an Association of Democratic Autonomous Neighborhoods . There are several more essays in the pipeline, which, if I can settle down to it, I'll get done, I like to think. All my papers since 1998 are now posted here. The 1968-1997 writings are also going up as fast as I can get to them.

http://jamesherod.info/?sec=aboutme

Acquisition Information:

The papers were a gift from James Herod.

Processing information:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Tom Quigley, Kathleen Dow.

Subjects

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Subjects:

Radicalism -- United States.
Anarchism -- United States.
Narchists -- United States -- 20th century.

Formats:

Correspondence
Essays

Names:

Dorchester Community News (Boston, Mass.).
Lucy Parsons Center.
Salzman, George, 1925-
Salzman, George, 1925-

Places:

Boston (Mass.) -- Politics and government.