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Holley Cantine
Born(1916-02-14)February 14, 1916
DiedJanuary 2, 1977(1977-01-02) (aged 60)
Woodstock, New York
Known forRetort

Holley R. Cantine Jr. (February 14, 1916 – January 2, 1977) was an American writer and activist best known for publishing the anarchist periodical Retort with Dachine Rainer.

Life

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Holley R. Cantine Jr.[1] was born on February 14, 1916,[2] and raised in Woodstock, New York. He came from a wealthy family.[3] His father owned a paper-coating business in Saugerties and his mother was a painter.[4] Cantine's maternal grandfather served as the first president of Panama and later became an ambassador for the United States. Woodstock was a growing, left-wing, artistic community during the time he was raised there.[3] Cantine studied anthropology at Swarthmore College and Columbia University but left before finishing his doctoral dissertation to pursue a self-sufficient life in the woods.[3]

Cantine edited the first issue of Retort, a journal of art and social philosophy, with Dorothy Paul in June 1942 from their small, self-built cabin in Bearsville, New York, near the town where he was raised.[5][3] Cantine published political writings alongside political poetry and fiction. Retort was an early publisher of writers Kenneth Patchen, Saul Bellow, and Robert Duncan.[3] By 1947, Cantine was editing alongside the anarchist poet Dachine Rainer and Retort has become "An Anarchist Quarterly".[5] Cantine set, printed, and bound the pages by hand.[3] The pair were jailed during World War II as conscientious objectors. They subsequently edited and published a collection of writings from conscientious objectors, Prison Etiquette, in 1950.[6] Retort ceased publication in 1951.[4]

He also wrote a weekly periodical, The Wasp, which took antagonistic aim at Woodstock tourists ("trudgers") and the town's commercialization.[7] His 1959 science fiction short story, "Double Double Toil and Trouble", received several awards. Cantine also translated Volin's The Unknown Revolution from French and his own Second Chance: A Story.[6]

Cantine died on January 2, 1977,[2] in a house fire in Woodstock.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Graham, Robert (2007). Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas. Vol. 2. Montreal: Black Rose Books. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-55164-310-6. OCLC 154704186.
  2. ^ a b Berger, Dan (2010). The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism. Rutgers University Press. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-8135-4873-9.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Cornell 2011, p. 109.
  4. ^ a b Evers 1987, p. 616.
  5. ^ a b Evers 1987, p. 606.
  6. ^ a b New Abolitionists, The: (Neo)slave Narratives And Contemporary Prison Writings. SUNY Press. July 14, 2005. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7914-8310-7.
  7. ^ Evers 1987, pp. 616–617.
  8. ^ Avrich, Paul (2005). Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. AK Press. p. 526. ISBN 978-1-904859-27-7.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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  • Cornell, Andrew (2016). Unruly Equality: U.S. Anarchism in the Twentieth Century. Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-28675-7.
  • Cornell, Andrew (2017). "New Wind: The Why?/Resistance Group and the Roots of Contemporary Anarchism, 1942–1954". In Goyens, Tom (ed.). Radical Gotham: Anarchism in New York City from Schwab's Saloon to Occupy Wall Street. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 122–141. ISBN 978-0-252-08254-2.
  • Hodges, Donald Clark (1974). "Retort". In Conlin, Joseph Robert (ed.). The American Radical Press, 1880–1960. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 423–429. ISBN 0-8371-6625-X.
  • Rainer, Dachine (1994). "Holley Cantine: February 14, 1916 – January 2, 1977". In Blechman, Max (ed.). Drunken Boat: Art, Rebellion, Anarchy. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia; Left Bank Books. pp. 177–185.
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