122-480: Active Defunct Publications Works The Ferrer Center and Stelton Colony were an anarchist social center and colony, respectively, organized to honor the memory of anarchist pedagogue Francisco Ferrer and to build a school based on his model, Escuela Moderna , in the United States. In the widespread outcry following Ferrer's execution in 1909 and the international movement that sprung in its wake,
244-513: A Spanish Republic in late 1886, Ferrer was himself forced to flee to France with his wife and three daughters, where they would stay for 16 years. While in France, Ferrer kept up his masonic activities with the Grand Orient de France . In Paris, Ferrer taught Spanish, sold wine on commission, volunteered as Ruíz's secretary (until his 1895 death), and pursued radical efforts. He was a Dreyfusard ,
366-526: A show trial by a kangaroo court , resulted in Ferrer's execution and triggered international outcry, as Ferrer was widely believed to be innocent at the time of his death. He was prominently memorialized in writing, monuments, and demonstrations across three continents. The protest became a movement to propagate his educational ideas, and Modern Schools in his name sprouted across the United States and Europe, reaching into Brazil and Asia. Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia
488-547: A "cultural center and evening school", which expanded into an "experimental day school" and, ultimately, a colony outside New Brunswick, New Jersey. The association lasted over 40 years and had three goals: to promote Ferrer's writings, to organize meetings on the anniversary of his death, and to establish schools by his model throughout the United States. Outside the United States, the Americans had no explicit connection with international Ferrer groups. The Association's headquarters,
610-430: A character appearing out of thin air or vanishing in full view of the audience, without an explanation of how the effect is to be staged, a matter of no importance, as Dunsany did not intend them to be performed live. After a successful US lecture tour in 1919–1920, Dunsany's reputation was now related principally to his plays. He temporarily reduced his output of short stories, concentrating on plays, novels and poetry for
732-676: A chess and pistol champion of Ireland, and travelled and hunted . He devised an asymmetrical game called Dunsany's chess . In later life, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin . He settled in Shoreham, Kent, in 1947. In 1957 he took ill when visiting Ireland and died in Dublin of appendicitis . Edward Plunkett ( Dunsany ), known to his family as "Eddie", was the first son of John William Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany (1853–1899), and his wife, Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor Ernle -Erle-Drax (née Burton) (1855–1916). From
854-575: A delegate to the London 1896 Congress of the Second International , and a teacher at the Masonic school. Ferrer began to explore anarchism following Ruíz's death. He met Louise Michel , Elisée Reclus , Sébastien Faure , befriended Charles Malato and Jean Grave , and bonded with Spanish anarchists Anselmo Lorenzo and Fernando Tarrida del Mármol . Their personalities and ideas impressed him, and by
976-431: A farm near Barcelona, where he developed republican and anti-clerical convictions. As a train conductor, he transmitted messages for the republican leader Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla , exiled in France. Following a failed republican uprising in 1885, Ferrer, too, moved to Paris with his family, where they stayed for 16 years. Ferrer began to explore anarchism and education. At the turn of the century, Ferrer had resolved to open
1098-459: A fervent atheist, became prominent in these conversations and advocated for a rational school as an alternative to the religious dogma and compulsory lessons common within Spanish schools. As a speaker, he was unpretentious and uncharismatic, but his sincerity and capacity for organization inspired others. Ferrer followed in a rough and ready Spanish tradition of extragovernment, rationalist education:
1220-501: A fictional pantheon. Many critics feel his early work laid grounds for the fantasy genre . Born in London as heir to one of the oldest Irish peerages, he was raised partly in Kent, but later lived mainly at Ireland's possibly longest-inhabited home, Dunsany Castle near Tara . He worked with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory , and supported the Abbey Theatre and some fellow writers. He was
1342-528: A force to propel cultural and political revolution. The Association found little agreement on school policy apart from that education was a process of educing a children's latent talents rather than a process of imposing dogma. The founders had little experience with education or parenting, apart from some having taught in the Workmen's Circle radical Sunday Schools, and trusting no authority, would hold long debates with no effect. Some Association members interfered in
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#17328633464751464-444: A front for insurrectionary sentiment. Ferrer represented peril to many social institutions—the church, the state, the military, the family, gender segregation, property—and the conservatives who wished to preserve them. During the school's early years, Ferrer adopted principles of anarcho-syndicalism , a philosophy of worker co-ownership that grew in prominence during this period. He published La Huelga General (The General Strike),
1586-549: A full member. At one of their meetings, after 1922, he asked Seán Ó Faoláin , who was presiding, "Do we not toast the King?" Ó Faoláin replied that there was only one toast: to the Nation; but after it was given and O'Faolain had called for coffee, he saw Dunsany, standing quietly among the bustle, raise his glass discreetly, and whisper "God bless him". The Curse of the Wise Woman received
1708-615: A group of New York anarchists convened as the Ferrer Association in 1910. Their headquarters, the Ferrer Center, hosted a variety of cultural events in the avant-garde arts and radical politics, including lectures, discussions, and performances. It was also home to the Ferrer Modern School , a libertarian, day school that emphasized unplanned, undogmatic curriculum. The Center moved several times throughout Manhattan to establish
1830-637: A historically wealthy and famous family, Lord Dunsany was related to many well-known Irish figures. He was a kinsman of the Catholic Saint Oliver Plunkett , the martyred Archbishop of Armagh whose ring and crozier head are still held by the Dunsany family. He was also related to the prominent Anglo-Irish unionist and later nationalist / Home Rule politician Sir Horace Plunkett and George Count Plunkett , Papal Count and Republican politician, father of Joseph Plunkett , executed for his part in
1952-730: A large quantity of pistol ammunition, along with shotgun and rifle ammunition. During the Second World War , Dunsany signed up for the Irish Army Reserve and the British Home Guard , the two countries' local defence forces, and was especially active in Shoreham, Kent , the English village bombed most during the Battle of Britain . Dunsany's fame arose chiefly from his prolific writings. He
2074-500: A libertarian school modeled on Paul Robin 's Prévost orphanage school. A large inheritance from a Parisian tutee provided the means to do so. Upon returning to Barcelona in 1901, Ferrer founded the Barcelona Modern School, Escuela Moderna , which sought to provide a secular, libertarian curriculum as an alternative to the religious dogma and compulsory lessons common within Spanish schools. Ferrer's pedagogy borrowed from
2196-471: A little trail of them to some city of Man, and sure enough, their larders would soon be full again. Despite his frequent shifts of style and medium, Dunsany's thematic concerns remained essentially the same. Many of his later novels had an explicitly Irish theme, from the semi-autobiographical The Curse of the Wise Woman to His Fellow Men. Lord Dunsany was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature ,
2318-425: A marble commemoration for Ferrer in its Grand-Place in mid-1910 and, separately, erected Ferrer's first honorary statue of a nude man holding the torch of enlightenment, in 1911. It was destroyed in 1915 under German occupation and restored by the international freethought movement in 1926. Public places in France and Italy adopted Ferrer's name in memorial. The international fallout from Ferrer's execution led to
2440-559: A martyr to the collusion of a vengeful church and traditionalist state. Protests in many of Europe's major cities coincided with hundreds of meetings across America, Europe, and Asia. A 15,000-person throng descended on Paris's Spanish embassy, and the anarchist black flag draped from the Milan Cathedral . British luminaries spoke in outrage, including George Bernard Shaw , H. G. Wells , and Arthur Conan Doyle alongside anarchists Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta , and Tarrida. Ferrer's death
2562-759: A member and at one point President of the Authors' Society, and likewise President of the Shakespeare Reading Society from 1938 until his death in 1957, when he was succeeded by Sir John Gielgud . Dunsany was also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was an honorary member of the Institut Historique et Heraldique de France. He was initially an Associate Member of the Irish Academy of Letters, founded by Yeats and others, and later
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#17328633464752684-449: A military base adjacent to and with negative effects for the colony. Elizabeth Ferm died in 1944 and her husband retired four years later. The school had diminished to 15 pupils at the time. The school closed in 1953. Laurence Veysey described the association as "one of the most notable—though unremembered—attempts to create a counter-culture in America". Of its accomplishments, Veysey counted
2806-564: A new series of visits to the United States, notably California, as recounted in Hazel Littlefield-Smith's biographical Dunsany, King of Dreams . In 1957, Lord Dunsany became ill while dining with the Earl and Countess of Fingall at Dunsany, in what proved to be an attack of appendicitis . He died in hospital in Dublin, at the age of 79. He was buried in the churchyard of the ancient church of St Peter and St Paul, Shoreham, Kent. His funeral
2928-527: A play) and others. He befriended and supported Francis Ledwidge , to whom he gave the use of his library, and Mary Lavin . Dunsany made his first literary tour to the United States in 1919 and further such visits up to the 1950s, in the early years mostly to the eastern seaboard and later, notably, to California. Dunsany's own work and contribution to the Irish literary heritage were recognised with an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin . In 1940, Dunsany
3050-526: A renewed colonial war in Morocco . The general strike called by Solidaridad Obrera culminated in a week of riots, which killed hundreds in and around Barcelona, and mass arrests, which led to torture, deportation, and execution. Ferrer was charged with orchestrating the rebellion and became its most famous casualty. Although Ferrer participated in the events of the Catalan Tragic Week, he did not mastermind
3172-701: A similar libertarian school, which became plausible when he inherited around a million francs from a middle-aged French woman whom he had tutored in Spanish and convinced of his ideas. With a large inheritance from a Parisian tutee, Ferrer returned to Spain in 1901, where he would open the Barcelona Modern School, Escuela Moderna . Spain was in a time of self-reflection after losing the Spanish–American War , particularly regarding their national education. Liberals and radicals wanted more secular curriculum, with new scientific, historical, and sociological content and teachers not beholden to diocesan inspectors. Ferrer,
3294-554: A space conducive to children's play. Following a bomb plot and police infiltration, several anarchists from the association decided to take the school out to the country. The school moved to what would become the Ferrer Colony in Stelton, New Jersey , 30 miles outside New York City, in 1914. The colony was based around the school and land was individually parceled such that, in the spirit of anarchist volunteerism, anyone could sell and exit
3416-479: A stronger immigrant population and rested three blocks from Central Park . The three-story building included an unusable ground level floor, a large room on the second floor where two classes occurred at once, and a small office and kitchen on the third floor, where the adult anarchists congregated. Enrollment rose despite the school's conditions. By 1914, the school taught 30 children and turned away half its applicants. Historian Laurence Veysey attributes this rise to
3538-776: A syndicalist journal, between 1901 and 1903, and worked to organize the Catalonian revolutionary labor movement and promote direct action . Ferrer led a parade of 1,700 children for secular education on Good Friday in April 1906. Ferrer was intimidated and vilified for his work in Barcelona. Police raided his house and tailed his movements. He was subject to slanderous public rumors to tarnish his reputation, including intonations of gambling, financial speculation, and hedonism. Ferrer's various romantic relations with women were presented as indications of his school's moral lessons. In 1905, Ferrer and
3660-525: A time, W. B. Yeats . He also socialised at times with George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells , and was a friend of Rudyard Kipling . In 1910 Dunsany commissioned a two-storey extension to Dunsany Castle, with a billiard room, bedrooms and other facilities. The billiard room includes the crests of all the Lords Dunsany up to the 18th. Dunsany served as a second lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards in
3782-505: A time. His poetry, now little seen, was for a time so popular that it is recited by the lead character of F. Scott Fitzgerald 's This Side of Paradise . His sonnet A Dirge of Victory was the only poem included in the Armistice Day edition of the Times of London. Launching another phase of his work, Dunsany's first novel, Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley appeared in 1922. It
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3904-431: A tradition of 18th century rationalism and 19th century romanticism . He held that children should wield freewheeling liberties at the expense of conformity , regulation, and discipline. His school eschewed punishments, rewards, and exams, and encouraged practical experience over academic study. The school hosted lectures for adults, a school for teacher training , and a radical printing press, which printed textbooks and
4026-593: A wealthy family, who worked at the school's press. While the attempt itself—the second in two years—was unsuccessful, it was successful as the pretense for deposing Ferrer. He was arrested in June 1906 on charges of planning the attempt and persuading Morral to perform it. Within two weeks, state authorities closed the school due to its association with Morral and Ferrer. Conservative members of lower house of Spain's legislature unsuccessfully proposed that all secular schools be closed for their promotion of antisocial behaviors. For
4148-511: A year Ferrer awaited trial, where he was acquitted for lack of proof. Ferrer's role in the Morral affair remains indeterminate, as of 1985. Ferrer was a militant anarchist, contrary to his proclamations otherwise, who believed in direct action and the usefulness of violence. The Spanish authorities attempted to connect Ferrer with two assassination attempts prior to Morral's. The Oxford historian Joaquín Romero Maura credits Ferrer with coordinating
4270-457: A year later. Ferrer traveled Europe as an advocate of the Spanish revolutionary cause, founded a libertarian education advocacy organization, and reopened his press. In mid-1909, Ferrer was arrested and accused of orchestrating a week of insurrection known as Barcelona's Tragic Week . Though Ferrer's involvement was likely not as blameless as intimated by his peers, he did not mastermind the events as charged. The ensuing court case, remembered as
4392-472: A younger brother, from whom he was estranged from about 1916, for reasons not fully clear but connected to his mother's will, was the noted British naval officer Sir Reginald Drax . Another younger brother died in infancy. Edward Plunkett grew up at the family properties, notably Dunstall Priory in Shoreham , Kent, and Dunsany Castle in County Meath, but also in family homes such as in London. His schooling
4514-693: Is a book at Dunsany Castle with wartime photographs, on which lost members of his command are marked. During the Irish War of Independence , Dunsany was charged with violating the Restoration of Order in Ireland Regulations , tried by court-martial on 4 February 1921, convicted, and sentenced to pay a fine of 25 pounds or serve three months in prison without labour. The Crown Forces had searched Dunsany Castle and had found two double-barrelled shotguns, two rook rifles, four Very pistols , an automatic pistol and
4636-455: Is joined to Terra Cognita, to the lands we know, by a bridge. Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use for it; they have a separate cellar for emeralds and a separate cellar for sapphires; they have filled a hole with gold and dig it up when they need it. And the only use that is known for their ridiculous wealth is to attract to their larder a continual supply of food. In times of famine , they have even been known to scatter rubies abroad,
4758-449: Is set in "a Romantic Spain that never was" and follows the adventures of a young nobleman, Don Rodriguez, and his servant in their search for a castle for Rodriguez. In 1924, Dunsany published his second novel, The King of Elfland's Daughter , a return to his early style of writing. In his next novel, The Charwoman's Shadow , Dunsany returned to the Spanish milieu and the light style of Don Rodriguez . Among his best-known characters
4880-453: The 1916 Rising . His mother was a cousin of Sir Richard Burton , and he inherited from her considerable height, being 1.93 metres tall (6'4"). The Countess of Fingall, wife of Dunsany's cousin, the Earl of Fingall , wrote a best-selling account of the life of the aristocracy in Ireland in the late 19th century and early 20th century called Seventy Years Young . Plunkett's only adult sibling,
5002-528: The Gran Oriente de España , under the leadership of Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla ), taking on the symbolic name, Brother "Cero", he reached the 32°. He used his position as a train conductor on a route between France and Barcelona to transmit messages for the exiled Republican leader Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla and shepherd republicans, radicals and freemasons to sanctuary. After supporting an attempted coup under General Manuel Villacampa del Castillo who intended to install
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5124-692: The Second Boer War . Volunteering in the First World War and appointed Captain in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers , he was stationed for a time at Ebrington Barracks in Derry. Hearing while on leave of disturbances in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916, he drove in to offer help and was wounded by a bullet lodged in his skull. After recovery at Jervis Street Hospital and what was then
5246-634: The free-thinker , pedagogue, and anarchist Francisco Ferrer was executed in Barcelona and subsequently propelled into martyrdom. The resulting Ferrer movement led to the founding of anticlerical private schools in the model of his Escuela Moderna throughout the world. One such school was founded in New York. On June 12, 1910, a group of 22 anarchists and sympathizers began the Francisco Ferrer Association in New York City. Together they built
5368-548: The 1920s. Dunsany's style varied significantly throughout his writing career. Prominent Dunsany scholar S. T. Joshi has described these shifts as Dunsany moving on after he felt he had exhausted the potential of a style or medium. From the naïve fantasy of his earliest writings, through his early short-story work in 1904–1908, he turned to the self-conscious fantasy of The Book of Wonder in 1912, in which he almost seems to be parodying his lofty early style. Each of his collections varies in mood; A Dreamer's Tales varies from
5490-573: The Association itself, early principals of the day school were native born, largely with degrees from Ivy League schools and not Jewish. They were possibly propelled by their interest in upending the status quo, altruism for the poor, and a curiosity for bohemian life in the ghetto, as juxtaposed against their urban, predictable upper-middle class lives. The school moved multiple times and ultimately closed in 1953. Students would "often" not learn to read until ten or twelve years old. Harry Kelly arranged
5612-826: The Butler , was released by Auteur TV and Justified Films in 2014, directed by Digby Rumsey. With footage from Dunsany and Shoreham, it included interviews with the author's great-grandson, the estate's curator, author Liz Williams , scholar S. T. Joshi, a local who knew the writer personally, and the head of the Irish Chess Union, among others. Dunsany's literary rights passed to a will trust first managed by Beatrice, Lady Dunsany, and are currently handled by Curtis Brown of London and partner firms worldwide. (Some past US deals, for example, have been listed by Locus Magazine as by SCG.) A few Dunsany works are protected for longer than normal copyright periods in some territories, notably most of
5734-591: The Center expanding his understanding of New York society beyond the knowledge he had received from books. Several anarchists from the association decided to take the school out to the country. The Center served as a model for schools across the United States in Chicago, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. But while these schools mostly closed within several years, the schools in Stelton and Mohegan would last for decades. As
5856-609: The Center included Max Weber , Jack London , Upton Sinclair , and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn . The folklorist Moritz Jagendorf started a "Free Theatre" at the Center in late 1914. The group performed new manuscripts, including a world premiere of a Lord Dunsany drama, as well as their own original plays, which had social themes. The theater had a very limited budget and some of its performers struggled to speak English. They also hosted Floyd Dell 's troupe and others from Greenwich Village. The Center had an air of radical affability and cosmopolitanism. Historian Laurence Veysey described
5978-463: The Center's adult membership was in the hundreds and Jewish people formed the largest contingent of its many represented nationalities. The social foundation of the New York Ferrer movement was the relationship between Jewish immigrants, who valued education, and domestic Americans, who approached teaching with alacrity. The Association and Modern School leaders were mostly domestic Americans. Among
6100-422: The Center, with its unrestricted discussions on social subjects and wide representation of nationalities, as potentially the country's least inhibited and most stimulating small venue at the time. The Center's radical politics made it a haven for anti-capitalist revolutionaries, anarchists, and libertarians. It hosted children from the 1912 Lawrence textile strike , supported Frank Tannenbaum 's 1914 mobilization of
6222-529: The Dunsany curator. In the late 2000s a PhD researcher, Tania Scott from the University of Glasgow , worked on Dunsany for some time and spoke at literary and other conventions; her thesis was published in 2011, entitled Locating Ireland in the fantastic fiction of Lord Dunsany . A Swedish fan, Martin Andersson, was also active in research and publication in the mid-2010s. An hour-long documentary, Shooting for
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#17328633464756344-449: The Dunsany œuvre for over twenty years, gathering stories, essays and reference material, for a joint initial bibliography and separate scholarly studies of Dunsany's work. An updated edition of their bibliography appeared in 2013. Joshi edited The Collected Jorkens and The Ginger Cat and other lost plays and co-edited The Ghost in the Corner and other stories using materials unearthed by
6466-639: The Ferrer Center, hosted a variety of cultural events: literary lectures, debates on current affairs, avant-garde arts and performance, social dances, and classes for the inquisitive masses. And when the Center crossed genres, its spirit of experimentalism was unpretentious. Though many of its teachers were hostile to formal academic manner, classes addressed standard subjects. Some were taught by distinguished individuals: painters Robert Henri and George Bellows taught figure drawing , Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen 's son taught comparative literature, Robert La Follette 's law partner taught government, and Will Durant taught
6588-453: The First and Second world wars and the Irish War of Independence . Dunsany circulated with many literary figures of the time. To many of these in Ireland he was first introduced by his uncle, the co-operative pioneer Sir Horace Plunkett , who also helped to manage his estate and investments for a time. He was friendly, for example, with George William Russell , Oliver St. John Gogarty , and for
6710-674: The Harmsworth Literary Award in Ireland. Dunsany received an honorary doctorate, D.Litt., from Trinity College Dublin , in 1940. In 1950, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Irish PEN , citing his fiction, poetry, and support for younger writers. However, after a negative appraisal by Per Hallström , the Nobel Committee did not consider him for the prize, which was won that year by Bertrand Russell . In
6832-653: The Jersey banking family), who was then living at Osterley Park . They married in 1904. Their one child, Randal, was born in 1906. Lady Beatrice was supportive of Dunsany's interests and helped him by typing his manuscripts, selecting work for his collections, including the 1954 retrospective short story collection, and overseeing his literary heritage after his death. The Dunsanys were socially active in Dublin and London and travelled between homes in Meath, London and Kent , other than during
6954-513: The King George V Hospital (now St. Bricin's Military Hospital ), he returned to duty. His military belt was lost in the episode and later used at the burial of Michael Collins . Having been refused forward positioning in 1916 and listed as valuable as a trainer, he served in the later war stages in the trenches and in the final period writing propaganda material for the War Office with MI7b(1). There
7076-659: The Mediterranean, Battles Long Ago, The Battle of the Atlantic , special edition January 1944). Olivia Manning 's character Lord Pinkrose in her novel sequence the Fortunes of War was a mocking portrait of Dunsany in that period. In 1947, Dunsany transferred his Meath estate in trust to his son and heir Randal and settled in Kent at his Shoreham house, Dunstall Priory. He visited Ireland only occasionally thereafter, and engaged actively in life in Shoreham and London. He also began
7198-462: The Modern School voiced their opposition to bullfighting , cautioning against using abolition of the practice as a means to stoke political nationalism . He was held in association with the 1906 assassination attempt on Spanish King Alfonso XIII , but ultimately released under international pressure the next year. The assassin, Mateo Morral, was a 25-year-old anarchist, well-educated and from
7320-493: The Morral affair. His last words before the firing squad of Montjuïc Castle on October 13, 1909, were, "Aim well, my friends. You are not responsible. I am innocent. Long live the Modern School!" Ferrer's execution became known as "martyrdom" to the causes of free thought and rational education. Ferrer was widely believed to be innocent at the time of his death. His execution sparked worldwide protest and indignation. Beyond anarchism, liberals across society viewed Ferrer as
7442-442: The Morral assassination attempt and a similar attempt a year earlier. Based on papers from French and Spanish authorities, Maura argues that Ferrer supplied the bombs and funds for the attempt to provoke insurrection. These types of official records from this period, however, were famous for their partiality and, even before some evidence from the case went missing, were altogether insufficient for conviction in Ferrer's time. Ferrer
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#17328633464757564-439: The United States, including the long-lived colony at Stelton, New Jersey, but most did not last past the mid-1920s. Schools by his name reached as far as Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Poland, and Yugoslavia. His methods were invoked by Gustav Landauer ( Bavarian Revolution of 1919 ) and Nestor Makhno ( Russian Revolution of 1917 ). Groups erected and named public memorials to Ferrer across Europe. Brussels displayed
7686-479: The association of (1) college-educated native Americans with recent, Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe, and of (2) intellectuals with laborers. Veysey called the Ferrer Modern School one of the few "truly advanced" American progressive schools of the 1920s. The Friends of the Modern School was founded in 1973. It was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in around 2005 with the mission of preserving
7808-468: The barony and was in turn succeeded by his grandson, the artist Edward Plunkett . Dunsany's literary rights passed from Beatrice to Edward. Aside from his literary work, Dunsany was a keen chess player, setting chess puzzles for journals such as The Times of London, playing José Raúl Capablanca to a draw in a simultaneous exhibition , and inventing Dunsany's Chess , an asymmetrical chess variant notable for not involving any fairy pieces , unlike
7930-406: The basis of freedom and justice" and accordingly, the founders wanted their school to let children develop freely and through this freedom, develop a sense of social justice. The Association was essentially anarchist, unwedded to a particular ideal, but to the free expression of opinion and exchange of ideas. The school would be both a protected island against the influence of middle-class America, and
8052-661: The boarding house. Nellie and James Dick operated the boarding house for children, known as the Living House. The couple had formerly opened Ferrer schools in their original England and elsewhere in the United States. They promoted freedom and spontaneity in education. In their dorms, the Dicks taught personal responsibility. In 1920, Elizabeth and Alexis Ferm became Stelton's co-principals. The couple had previously run schools in New York City. Their methods emphasized manual work and crafts—e.g., pottery, gardening, carpentry, dance—held in
8174-447: The books, which covered topics from math and grammar to natural and social sciences to religious mythology and the iniquities of patriotism and conquest, for upending social order. The press's monthly journal hosted the school's news and articles from prominent libertarian writers. Aside from the school's purpose of fostering self-development, Ferrer believed it had an additional function: prefigurative social regeneration . The school
8296-475: The children's physical and intellectual capacities without coercion. He believed that social and economic environment played a larger role in a child's development than heredity, and so his school aimed to provide nature, exercise, love, and understanding, especially towards children normally subject to stigma. Ferrer corresponded with but never visited Robin in Cempuis. Around 1900, Ferrer declared his intention to open
8418-494: The classroom to the objection of other members. The day school teacher was not expected to uphold a religious or social dogma but instead to "have the libertarian spirit" and answer children's questions truthfully. The teachers had low salaries and high turnover, including multiple scrambles for staffing. No principal stayed longer than a year between 1911 and 1916. The Ferrer Modern School also suffered its environmental conditions. The Center's original location at 6 St. Mark's Place
8540-419: The colony at their prerogative. They intended for the colony to form the center of a national libertarian education movement. The school floundered in its first years and passed through multiple administrations, the longest of which with co-principals Elizabeth and Alexis Ferm . The school closed in 1953. It had been a model for short-lived Ferrer schools across the country and lasted among the longest. In 1909,
8662-709: The creation of the syndicalist labor federation Solidaridad Obrera and its journal. In April 1908, Ferrer founded the International League for the Rational Education of Children, which would advocate for libertarian education across Europe. Its primary of three journals, L'Ecole Renovée , included articles by major anarchists and figures in libertarian education. Through its first year, the League led to libertarian schools in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Milan and worked with
8784-544: The demise of the Antonio Maura administration. Ferrer separated from his wife, Teresa Sanmartí, and later had relations with a friend of the woman whose inheritance funded the Barcelona school. He then fell in love with a teacher at his Escuela Moderna, Soledad Villafranca . Lord Dunsany Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany FRSL FRGS ( / d ʌ n ˈ s eɪ n i / ; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957), commonly known as Lord Dunsany ,
8906-519: The dilapidated children's dormitories, resurrected the children-run periodical, and added a range of adult activities. The Dicks left in 1933 to pursue their longtime wish of opening their own Modern School in Lakewood, New Jersey . The Ferms were recruited to return in the mid-1930s, when the school population declined as the Great Depression depleted family incomes. The American government established
9028-431: The early leaders, only Joseph J. Cohen was an immigrant, and he arrived three years after the Center's founding. The rest were not immigrants: the early spokesperson and first Association president Leonard Abbott , Harry Kelly , and early financier Alden Freeman. Journalist Hutchins Hapgood, who lectured at the Center, came to write about Yiddish culture following his interactions there. Gallerist Carl Zigrosser wrote of
9150-566: The end of 1905, Ferrer schools in the image of his Escuela Moderna, for both children and adults, grew across eastern Spain: 14 in Barcelona and 34 across Catalonia, Valencia, and Andalusia. The Spanish Republicans and the secular League of Freethinkers organized their own classes using materials from the school press, with around 120 such rationalist schools in all. The rapidity of Ferrer's rise in influence troubled Spanish authorities. His monetary inheritance and organizing ability amplified his subversive efforts, and authorities viewed his school as
9272-439: The events as charged. Reliable retellings of the insurrection credit spontaneous forces rather than anarchist premeditation. Ferrer likely participated in the week's events, though historian of anarchism Paul Avrich considered Ferrer's role marginal. The evidence presented at Ferrer's military court trial included testimony from his political enemies and Ferrer's prior subversive writings, but no evidence of his having orchestrated
9394-507: The expense of conformity, regulation, and discipline. It combined play and crafts alongside academic work and championed traits of reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observation over that of piety and obedience. It advocated for learning through experience rather than drilled instruction by rote, and for treating children with love and warmth. This model's adherents, in seeking a school that eschewed religious and political authority, thought that changes in mass education would circumvent
9516-442: The expressiveness and love shared between students and their teachers, and to a cultural "union of enthusiasms" in the Ferrer movement, in which new Jewish immigrants, whose families tended towards warm affection and interest in education, met a body of Americans who equally wanted to be their teachers. The day school's students were predominantly from immigrant, garment industry worker families with radical or anarchist politics. Like
9638-492: The first collection, The Gods of Pegāna, earning a commission on sales. The stories in his first two books, and perhaps the beginning of his third, were set in an invented world, Pegāna, with its own gods, history and geography. Starting with this, Dunsany's name is linked to that of Sidney Sime , his chosen artist, who illustrated much of his work, notably up to 1922. After The Book of Wonder (1912), Dunsany began to write plays – many of which were even more successful at
9760-477: The first edition of which he wrote an introduction, and an unnamed 1956 short story collection, eventually published as part of The Ghost in the Corner and other stories in 2017. Doyle was still working as curator in 2020. Some uncollected works, previously published in magazines, and some unpublished works, have been selected in consultation with them, and published in chapbooks by a US small press. Fans and scholars S. T. Joshi and Darrell Schweitzer worked on
9882-414: The first of a type that would become popular in fantasy and science fiction writing: highly improbable "club tales" told at a gentleman's club or bar. Some saw Dunsany's writing habits as peculiar. Lady Beatrice said, "He always sat on a crumpled old hat while composing his tales". (The hat was eventually stolen by a visitor to Dunsany Castle.) Dunsany almost never rewrote anything; everything he published
10004-580: The history of philosophy. The Center held an evening English class, whose topics often included proletarian history and current affairs. One group studied Esperanto . Lectures discussed free thought, religion, sex, and hygiene. Margaret Sanger proposed mothers' meetings on birth control . On the weekends, the Center hosted speakers for discussion including journalist Hutchins Hapgood , poet Edwin Markham , and reporter Lincoln Steffens . A lecture by lawyer Clarence Darrow attracted hundreds. Others associated with
10126-574: The hounds of a local hunt and hunting in parts of Africa. He was at one time the pistol -shooting champion of Ireland. Dunsany also campaigned for animal rights, being known especially for his opposition to the "docking" of dogs' tails, and presided over the West Kent branch of the RSPCA in his later years. He enjoyed cricket , provided the local cricket ground situated near Dunsany Crossroads, and later played for and presided at Shoreham Cricket Club in Kent. He
10248-449: The late 1890s writing under his given name, with published verses such as "Rhymes from a Suburb" and "The Spirit of the Bog". In 1905, writing as Lord Dunsany, he produced the well-received collection The Gods of Pegāna . Dunsany's most notable fantasy short stories appeared in collections from 1905 to 1919, before fantasy had been recognised as a distinct genre. He paid for the publication of
10370-613: The late 1890s, he considered them kindred spirits. While Ferrer would later deny involvement in the anarchist movement, especially when government scrutiny was strongest against him, historian of anarchism Paul Avrich wrote that Ferrer's anarchist affiliation was indisputable, despite his portrayal by former historians as a pacifist or idealist rather than revolutionary. Throughout his entire life and across multiple countries, Ferrer worked for anarchist causes, funded other anarchist work, and published anarchist books. Many major and minor anarchist figures from Barcelona worked in affiliation with
10492-503: The late 1990s, a curator, J. W. (Joe) Doyle, was appointed by the estate to work at Dunsany Castle, in part to locate and organise the author's manuscripts, typescripts and other materials. Doyle found several works known to exist but thought to be "lost": the plays The Ginger Cat and "The Murderers," some Jorkens stories, and the novel The Pleasures of a Futuroscope (later published by Hippocampus Press ). He also found hitherto unknown works, including The Last Book of Jorkens , to
10614-729: The legacy of the Stelton Modern School. Regular reunions of former students continued until the late 2010s and were recorded and are available at the Rutgers archives. The records of the Friends, as well as the Modern School itself, can be found at Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers. Francisco Ferrer Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia ( Catalan pronunciation: [fɾənˈsɛsk fəˈrej ˈɣwaɾði.ə] ; January 14, 1859 – October 13, 1909), widely known as Francisco Ferrer ( Spanish pronunciation: [fɾanˈθisko feˈreɾ] ),
10736-420: The libertarian schools of Sébastien Faure and Madeleine Vernet . But Ferrer would not see a second year with the League. Ferrer was arrested at the end of August 1909 following the previous month's civil unrest and week of outright insurrection in Barcelona known as Tragic Week . Citizens, wary from a prior war and governmental corruption, originally demonstrated against a call for military reserves to fight
10858-567: The many variants that require the player to learn unconventional piece movements. He was president of both the Irish Chess Union and the Kent County Chess Association for some years and of Sevenoaks Chess Club for 54 years. His short story The Three Sailors' Gambit is a classic work of suspense that incorporates a strong and unique chess element into its plot. Dunsany was an avid horseman and hunter, for many years hosting
10980-496: The move to Stelton, New Jersey, about 30 miles from New York City. The anarchist printer and Association member selected the site, a farm within two miles of a railroad station. The group bought the land and resold plots to colonists at fair market value while setting aside land for the school. As anarchists, the colonists did not uphold a common doctrine towards property, and disagreed on whether private property should be preserved or abolished. Plots were individually owned such that, in
11102-421: The objects of the lesson could be experienced firsthand. Pupils planned their own work and were trusted and free to attend as they pleased. The Escuela Moderna additionally hosted a school to train teachers and a radical publishing press, which translated and created more than 40 textbooks adequate for Ferrer's purposes, written in accessible language on recent scientific concepts. The Spanish authorities abhorred
11224-404: The quality of guest intellectual lecturers, had impressed even middle-class liberal reformers. Anarchist Emma Goldman credited the success of the school's expansion to Ferrer's methodical administrative ability. Other schools and centers in his model spread across Spain and to South America. By the time Ferrer opened a satellite school in the nearby textile center Vilanova i la Geltrú towards
11346-421: The rebellion. Ferrer maintained his innocence and was barred from presenting complementary testimony. The court case, which would culminate in Ferrer's death by firing squad , is remembered as being quickly decided. Historian Paul Avrich later summarized the case as "judicial murder", a successful attempt to quell an agitator whose ideas were dangerous to the status quo, as retribution for not convicting him in
11468-452: The republicans and Fourierists schools (1840–50s), the anarchist and secularist schools (1870–80s), Paul Robin's Cempuis orphanage, Joan Puig i Elias (Catalonia), and José Sánchez Rosa (Andalusia). Ferrer's libertarian pedagogy also borrowed from 18th century rationalism, 19th century romanticism, and pedagogues including Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Kropotkin , and Tolstoy . This tradition pursued freewheeling liberties for children at
11590-505: The school Ferrer later opened, and Europe's most prominent anarchist leaders advised and wrote for him. While in Paris, Ferrer became interested in education, which was a hot topic in anarchist and rationalist circles. Ferrer was captivated by Paul Robin 's Prévost orphanage school in Cempuis , which modeled the school Ferrer would open. Robin's' co-educational "integral" program sought to develop
11712-404: The school had no discipline or set curriculum, same as it was in New York City. Students joined in craft and outdoor activities. In addition to students from colonist families, between 30 and 40 children boarded at the school in what was formerly a farmhouse. Next to the farmhouse, Stelton built an open-air dormitory. Their winters were cold. Margaret Sanger's daughter died of pneumonia contracted in
11834-496: The school's journal. Around 120 offshoots of the school spread throughout Spain. The rapidity of Ferrer's rise troubled Spanish church and state authorities, who viewed the school as a front for insurrectionary activity. Ferrer was held in association with the 1906 assassination attempt on the Spanish King , which was used as a pretext for closing the school, but was ultimately released without conviction under international pressure
11956-455: The schoolhouse's workshops. Alternatively, students could study in the library with James Dick. Following disagreement with some parents, who wanted the school to put more emphasis on reading and class-struggle politics, the Ferms left the school in 1925 rather than compromise their technique. The school briefly floundered between 1925 and 1928, when the Dicks returned as co-principals. They renovated
12078-434: The spirit of anarchist volunteerism, anyone could sell and exit the colony at their prerogative. ... They hoped the colony could form the center of a national libertarian education movement. The school at Stelton was founded in 1914. It floundered in its first years. In 1916, the socialist William Thurston Brown, who had experience operating modern schools, became Stelton's principal. Stelton's lessons were non-compulsory and
12200-681: The state shuttered the school. The Escuela Moderna charged sliding scale tuition based on parental capacity to pay, and divided students into three curricular levels. Ferrer's pedagogy sought to strip dogma from education and instead help children direct their own powers. Ferrer's school eschewed punishments and rewards, which he felt incentivized deception over sincerity. Similarly, he did not adopt grades or exams, whose propensity to flatter, deflate, and torture Ferrer considered injurious. Ferrer prioritized practical knowledge over theory and encouraged children to experience rather than read. Lessons entailed visits to local factories, museums, and parks where
12322-466: The state, and the military. This education extended to adults, as well. The school invited parents to participate in the school's operation and the public to attend evening and Sunday afternoon lessons. Ferrer also advocated for a Spanish popular university that never came to fruition. Ferrer was the center of Barcelonian libertarian education for the decade between his return and his death. The Escuela Moderna's program, from Ferrer's anticlericalism to
12444-558: The stunted public enlightenment and preservation of status quo that they blamed on the influence of both church and state. Free education, to Ferrer, entailed educators who would use improvised experimentation to arouse the child's will and autodidactic drive rather than impose their own dogmatic ideas through formal curriculum. The Escuela Moderna opened on Barcelona's Carrer de les Corts with thirty students in September 1901. More than 126 students were enrolled five years later, in 1906, when
12566-406: The time than his early story collections – while continuing to write short stories. He carried on writing plays for the theatre into the 1930s, including the famous If (1921), and also some radio productions. Although many of Dunsany's plays were successfully staged in his lifetime, he also wrote "chamber plays" or closet dramas . Some of these chamber or radio plays involve supernatural events –
12688-412: The unemployed, and fed protesters. The Center's formation coincided with a resurgence of interest in radical politics: the rise of syndicalism, multiple revolutions (including Russia ), and strike actions. While assimilation had eroded immigrant interest in radical politics for several decades, with this optimistic turn, anarchism had begun to escape the stigma of the 1901 McKinley assassination . By 1914,
12810-557: The wistfulness of "Blagdaross" to the horrors of "Poor Old Bill" and "Where the Tides Ebb and Flow" to the social satire of "The Day of the Poll." The opening paragraph of " The Hoard of the Gibbelins " from The Book of Wonder , (1912) gives a good indication of both the tone and tenor of Dunsany's style at the time: The Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man. Their evil tower
12932-434: Was Joseph Jorkens , an obese , middle-aged raconteur who frequented the fictional Billiards Club in London and would tell fantastic stories if anyone bought him a large whiskey and soda. From his tales, it was clear that Jorkens had travelled to all seven continents, was extremely resourceful and well-versed in world cultures, but always came up short on becoming rich and famous. The Jorkens books, which sold well, were among
13054-401: Was a Spanish radical freethinker , anarchist , and educationist behind a network of secular, private, libertarian schools in and around Barcelona . His execution, following a revolt in Barcelona, propelled Ferrer into martyrdom and grew an international movement of radicals and libertarians , who established schools in his model and promoted his schooling approach. Ferrer was raised on
13176-622: Was a first draft. Much of his work was written with a quill pen he made himself; Lady Beatrice was usually the first to see the writings and would help to type them. It has been said that Lord Dunsany sometimes conceived stories while hunting and would return to the Castle and draw in his family and servants to re-enact his visions before he set them on paper. Dunsany's work was translated from early on into languages that include Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Czech and Turkish – his uncle, Horace Plunkett, suggested 14 languages by
13298-532: Was a more likely influence on the New York founders' interest in starting a school, as was the importance put upon education in Jewish culture. New York anarchists believed in the liberatory role of the school partly because, as European anarchist émigrés, they believed in the power of ideas to change the future and wanted their children to share their values. The school's early character was unplanned and undogmatic. The Association sought "the reconstruction of society upon
13420-475: Was a quality to be instilled in children, as children brought to love freedom and see their dignity as shared with others would become good adults. The lessons of this education in social justice, equality, and liberty included capitalism as evil, government as slavery, war as crime against humanity , freedom as fundamental to human development, and suffering produced through patriotism, exploitation, and superstition. Their textbooks took positions against capitalism,
13542-934: Was a supporter of Scouting for many years, serving as President of the Sevenoaks district Boy Scouts Association . He also supported an amateur drama group, the Shoreham Players. Dunsany provided support for the British Legion in both Ireland and Kent, including grounds in Trim and poetry for the Irish branch's annual memorial service on a number of occasions. Dunsany was a prolific writer of short stories, novels, plays, poetry, essays and autobiography. He published over 90 books in his lifetime, not including individual plays. Books have continued to appear, with more than 120 having been issued by 2017. Dunsany's works have been published in many languages. Dunsany began his literary career in
13664-505: Was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. He published more than 90 books during his lifetime, and his output consisted of hundreds of short stories, plays, novels, and essays; further works were published posthumously. Having gained a name in the 1910s as a writer in the English-speaking world, he is best known today for the 1924 fantasy novel The King of Elfland's Daughter , and his first book, The Gods of Pegāna , which depicts
13786-463: Was an embryonic version of the future libertarian society Ferrer hoped to see. Propaganda and agitation were central to the Escuela Moderna's aims, as Ferrer dreamt of a society in which people constantly renewed themselves and their environment through experimentation. To this end, students received dogmatic instruction in the form of moral indoctrination. Ferrer believed that respect for fellow men
13908-645: Was appointed Byron Professor of English in Athens University , Greece. Having reached Athens by a circuitous route, he was so successful that he was offered a post as Professor of English in Istanbul . However, he had to be evacuated due to the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, returning home by an even more complex route, his travels forming a basis for a long poem published in book form ( A Journey, in 5 cantos: The Battle of Britain, The Battle of Greece, The Battle of
14030-641: Was at Cheam , Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst , which he entered in 1896. The title passed to him at his father's death in 1899 at a fairly young age. The young Lord Dunsany returned to Dunsany Castle after war duty, in 1901. In that year he was also confirmed as an elector for the Irish representative peers in the House of Lords . In 1903, he met Lady Beatrice Child Villiers (1880–1970), youngest daughter of The 7th Earl of Jersey (head of
14152-535: Was attended by many family members (including Pakenhams, Jerseys and Fingalls), representatives of his old regiment and various bodies in which he had taken an interest, and figures from Shoreham. A memorial service was held at Kilmessan in Meath, with a reading of " Crossing the Bar ", which coincided with the passing of a flock of geese. Beatrice survived Dunsany, living mainly at Shoreham and overseeing his literary legacy until her death in 1970. Their son Randal succeeded to
14274-555: Was born January 10 or 14, 1859, on a farm near Barcelona in Alella, Spain . He became a republican and freethinker in his youth. While his parents were pious Catholics, he grew independent and anti-clerical convictions from his freethinker uncle and militant atheist first employer. During his mid-20s, Ferrer had become a radical Republican. In 1883, he was initiated into the Masonic Lodge Verdad in Barcelona (Lodge Number 146 of
14396-447: Was covered widely, from the front page of The New York Times to a number of books. The worldwide protest became the Ferrer educational movement in his honor. The fact of his execution accelerated Ferrer's renown as the most famous libertarian educator, over Sébastian Faure and Paul Robin. His works were translated into multiple languages as a rationalist education movement spread worldwide. Modern Schools sprouted across Europe and
14518-591: Was established in haste and could not house a day school for lack of outdoor play space and park access. It moved several blocks north to 104 East Twelfth Street just before the school opened for the school year in 1911. This location had an outdoor play space but the building continued to lack standard school equipment and was less accessible to radical families, so the school moved farther north in October 1912 to an older building in East Harlem , 63 East 107th Street, which had
14640-514: Was involved in the Irish Literary Revival . Supporting the Revival, Dunsany was a major donor to the Abbey Theatre and he moved in Irish literary circles. He was well acquainted with W. B. Yeats (who rarely acted as editor but gathered and published a Dunsany selection), Lady Gregory , Percy French , George "AE" Russell , Oliver St John Gogarty, Padraic Colum (with whom he jointly wrote
14762-624: Was originally intended, the Ferrer Association established a day school for children within the Ferrer Center in October 1911. In practice, the New York Ferrer Modern School was based less on Ferrer's method than his memory. The New York school's founders were propelled by their sense of injustice at Ferrer's execution and their belief in the liberatory prospect of his approach, but they made no concerted effort to replicate his example. The American movement for progressive education
14884-543: Was released from prison in June 1907, backed by an international coalition of anarchist and rationalist organizations who presented Ferrer's case as another iniquitous Spanish inquisition. The next month, Ferrer toured the European capitals as an advocate of the Spanish revolutionary cause. When he returned to Barcelona in September, though Ferrer was prohibited from reopening his school, he reopened his press, where he published new textbooks and translations. He additionally helped
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