Cassius Cook (original) (raw)

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American anarchist

Cassius V. Cook (1879– March 1, 1950) was an American anarchist activist, writer and publisher.[1]

Cook grew up in Iowa before moving to Chicago and then California. He studied pharmacy at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco.[2]

He was an associate of Emma Goldman, raising her bond when she was arrested in San Francisco in 1909 after she came to the city for a series of lectures and debates organized by the San Francisco Social Science League, of which Cook was a member.[3] He later accompanied her to Seattle as part of a lecture tour.[4] When the San Francisco Free Speech League was formed after Goldman's arrest, he became its secretary.[3] The involvement of Cook and others in Goldman's defense was said to have "invigorated [Goldman] with a new sense of mission."[5]

He contributed writing to Mother Earth and was arrested for opposition to the First World War.[4]

He later settled in Vancouver, British Columbia where in 1913 he was secretary-treasurer of the Miners' Liberation League and worked for the Dr. Bell Electro Appliance Company from 1913 to 1916 according to city directories.[4]

Later in the decade, he edited The Libertarian Magazine in Seattle.[6]

In 1919, Cook was head of the Chicago office of the International Workers' Defence League and was involved in organizing to free or win a retrial for Thomas Mooney, who had been convicted and sentenced to death—commuted to life in prison—for the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing.[7]

Between the World Wars, Cook was a member of the anarchist Libertarian Society in Los Angeles. He was described as a "large, florid, and bombastic" man, who "wrote resolutions for meetings and conventions."[8]

Later in life, he was an advertising executive and secretary of Rocker Publications, which printed and promoted the work of Rudolf Rocker.[9]

He was living in Los Angeles when he died on March 1, 1950, and was survived by his wife Sadie, a sister, and two brothers.[9] His death was also noted by a short obituary in the London-based Freedom, an anarchist fortnightly newspaper.[10] His papers are part of the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan.[1]

  1. ^ a b "Cassius Cook papers, 1908-1950". Archive Grid. OCLC Online Computer Library Center. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  2. ^ Nutter, Frank (1904). "Junior Pharmacists". Chips. V. San Francisco: College of Physicians and Surgeons: 61. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  3. ^ a b Goldman, Emma (2003). Falk, Candace; Pateman, Barry; Moran, Jessica (eds.). Emma Goldman : a documentary history of the American years: Volume 2: Making Speech Free, 1902-1909. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 408, 565. ISBN 978-0520225695.
  4. ^ a b c Leier, James Mark (2013). Rebel life : the life and times of Robert Gosden : revolutionary, mystic, labour spy (Rev. ed.). Vancouver, BC: New Star Books. pp. 35–37. ISBN 9781554200580. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  5. ^ Bruns, Roger A. (2001). The damndest radical : the life and world of Ben Reitman, Chicago's celebrated social reformer, hobo king, and whorehouse physician (1st Illinois pbk ed.). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. p. 92. ISBN 9780252069895. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  6. ^ Avrich, Paul (1978). An American Anarchist: The Life of Voltairine de Cleyre. Princeton University Press. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Labor Unions May Strike to Get Mooney Out". The Border Cities Star. 20 May 1919. p. 12. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  8. ^ Swieda, Wanda (2005). "Wanda Swieda". In Avrich, Paul (ed.). Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Oakland, CA: AK Press. p. 370. ISBN 9781904859277. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  9. ^ a b "Cassius V. Cook". Los Angeles Times. 3 March 1950. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  10. ^ "Three Old Comrades" (PDF). Freedom. London: Freedom Press. 1 April 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 20 August 2022.