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PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
For more than twenty years I have entertained the design of
publishing an English translation of " Der Einzige und sein
Eigentum." When I formed this design, the number of
English-speaking persons who had ever heard of the book was
very limited. The memory of Max Stirner had been virtually
extinct for an entire generation. But in the last two decades
there has been a remarkable revival of interest both in the book
and in its author. It began in this country with a discussion in
the pages of the Anarchist periodical, " Liberty," in which
Stirner's thought was clearly expounded and vigorously cham-
pioned by Dr. James L. Walker, who adopted for this discussion
the pseudonym " Tak Kak." At that time Dr. Walker was the
chief editorial writer for the Galveston " News." Some years
later he became a practising physician in Mexico, where he died
in 1904. A series of essays which he began in an Anarchist
periodical, " Egoism," and which he lived to complete, was
published after his death in a small volume, " The Philosophy
of Egoism." It is a very able and convincing exposition of
Stirner's teachings, and almost the only one that exists in the
English language. But the chief instrument in the revival of
Stirnerism was and is the German poet, John Henry Mackay.
Very early in his career he met Stirner's name in Lange's " His-
tory of Materialism," and was moved thereby to read his book.
The work made such an impression on him that he resolved to
devote a portion of his life to the rediscovery and rehabilitation
of the lost and forgotten genius. Through years of toil and cor-
respondence and travel, and triumphing over tremendous ob-