Arthur Desmond
Encyclopedia
Arthur Desmond a.k.a. Arthur Uing, Ragnar Redbeard, Richard Thurland, Desmond Dilg and Gavin Gowrie, was a New Zealand
politician, Australian anarchist, poet and author. Today Desmond is best remembered for his pseudonymously written books Might Is Right
and Rival Caesars.
This is why George G. Reeve, Desmond’s first biographer, could honestly write that "To many another person seeking his acquaintance Desmond held aloof, and to a great extent surrounded himself — ‘behind the veil’ as it were — by a ‘mystery halo’ and a sacrosanctness hard to penetrate." Desmond’s second biographer, Darrell W. Conder, concurs and indeed, after presenting the tangle that constitutes Desmond’s life in New Zealand
, Australia
and America
, questions not only Desmond’s origins, but his actual birth name. This doubt is based on Desmond’s continuous use of pseudonyms and aliases throughout his adult life. George G. Reeve continues “Arthur Desmond, for that was the real name of ‘Ragnar Redbeard’ was a native of Hawkes [sic] Bay, New Zealand, where he was born about the year 1842 of Irish ancestry.” In 1921 The International Communist carried a short article on Desmond in which it was claimed that he was “... a native of Napier, Hawkes [sic] Bay, Maoriland”. (The International Communist for Saturday, 17 September 1921, p. 2 article “Redbeard in Sydney” by 'Gullangulong') New Zealand National Dictionary biographer Rachel Barrowman adds: “Arthur Desmond was unknown to the electors of Hawke’s Bay when he stood for Parliament in 1884
. 'We only know that Mr. Desmond is a cattle-drover, and that he is of Radical tendencies’, the editor of the Hawke’s Bay Herald wrote. He was said to be 25 years old [placing his birth in 1859], born in New Zealand of Irish descent. He had been in Hawke’s Bay since the late 1870s, and had worked as a musterer in south Taranaki. Of his background and personal life nothing more is known.” Of the three candidates, Desmond came last.
However, the most detailed information about Arthur Desmond’s origins come from records after his immigration to the United States in 1895-96. On the occasion of his first appearance in a U.S. census record in 1900, Desmond declared that he was born in England in the year 1859 of parents who were also born in England. This declaration was backed by Desmond’s Illinois
death certificate on which his son stated that Desmond and his father were both natives of Northumberland, England. This information is corroborated by Desmond’s 1904 Chicago
marriage record. In that instance Desmond declared that he was born in place called Claud, Northumberland, England in 1859 to Samuel Desmond and Sarah Ewing. Nevertheless, to compound matters, in the 1910 U.S. census record Arthur Desmond claimed his birthplace as California
, but changed that to England in his last census appearance in 1920.
Whatever the truth of his origins, the first concrete evidence of Arthur Desmond’s life comes when he stood for parliament in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in 1884. His two addresses to the Electors of Hawke’s Bay still survive. In one of the addresses, Desmond said: “You, yourselves, are principally to blame for allowing this in the past. You have allowed great squatters of the worst type to rule you to their own advantage; they have themselves grabbed the good land, and they attempt to pose as your friends by offering you the crumbs that fall from their table. You have the power in your own hands now, and if you do not wish to be for ever serfs of territorial gods almighty; if you have got any of the energy of your progenitors, you will not stand this kind of injustice any longer. You will say to them with me — Wealth that we make for you, money we earn; give us our share of them, give us a turn. If you have the pluck to say this, then return me as your representative, and I will lead you.”
With only a dismal 190 votes, Arthur Desmond lost the 1884 election. However, he didn’t give up on politics and sought out the patronage of Sir George Grey KCB, former Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, former Governor of Cape Colony in South Africa
, former Premier of New Zealand, a prolific writer and founder of the prestigious Grey College and Grey High School in Port Elizabeth. Since Sir George was a staunch defender of the Maoris, Arthur Desmond also took up their cause, a move that was no small issue in the New Zealand of his day.
In 1887 Arthur Desmond again stood for Parliament, this time running on a platform that consisted of a concentrated attack on landlords, bankers and monopolists. Desmond advocated land reform, the nationalization of large estates and banks, and promoted Henry George
’s single taxation—a proposal that taxation should be confined to land rent, since, in Desmond’s view, land was the real source of wealth. When he publicly denounced bank directors as “scoundrels”, estate owners as “blood-sucking leeches” and the local press as “hirelings of monopoly”, Desmond was essentially standing on a socialist platform. Additionally, Desmond championed the Crown’s right of preemption of Maori land, which meant the resumption of a 6 February 1840 agreement whereby only the Crown could buy land from the Maoris. This move made Desmond a lot of enemies among European New Zealanders.
In his second parliamentary attempt Arthur Desmond made a respectable showing of 562 votes to the 968 of the sitting member, Capt. W. R. Russell. An unemployed and no doubt discouraged Arthur Desmond left town to find work in the timber mills of Poverty Bay and on the farms of the Waikato. Of those latest hard times he would write: “Many a time when lying on my back in a bush whare or a tent after a day of grinding toil, have I resolved that if ever I had a chance to sweep away such a brutal system, it would not be neglected.”
In February 1889, 60-year-old Te Kooti
, the leader of the Hau Haus, decided to visit Gisborne, the land of his birth. This impending visit caused an uproar among the European population because they were convinced that the chief was there to prevent the sale of Maori land. For Arthur Desmond Te Kooti’s action was disastrous since he found himself in the untenable position of supporting the chief against New Zealand’s European population over an issue that had been a major plank in his parliamentary aspiration—the Crown’s right of preemption.
In Poverty Bay
, at a packed schoolhouse in Makaraka, Arthur Desmond faced a meeting of some five hundred angry settlers on Te Kooti’s behalf. Amidst talk of armed resistance and bloodshed, Desmond explained to his brethren that he knew many of the chief’s supporters and that the Maori meant them no harm. His arguments were not convincing, and in the resulting chaos some of the settlers grabbed Desmond and bodily threw him from the schoolhouse.
Several days later another meeting of some eight hundred settlers took place, and a resolution was passed to stop Te Kooti’s visit—by force if necessary. Once again Arthur Desmond was there to speak in favor of the chief. When he let it slip that he had been in contact with the Maori leaders and went on to forcefully threaten that the settlers had no legal or moral right to interfere with Te Kooti’s visit, fights erupted. This time police officers had to escort Desmond from the meeting for his own protection. In the New Zealand Herald Desmond was called the “pakeha [white] emissary from the Hau Haus” and was reported lucky to have left the meeting alive.
In the end the crisis was averted when Te Kooti and seventy of his followers were arrested by the government and thrown in jail. Desmond went on to pen a poem dedicated to Chief Te Kooti, which he titled the “Song of Te Kooti.”
According to the preface of the 1896 edition of Might Is Right, which was released with the title of The Survival of the Fittest, it was in the aftermath of his 1887 parliamentary bid that Arthur Desmond first conceived of and began writing Might Is Right. Obviously the book had not taken its final form because in 1890 Desmond submitted an article to Zealandia magazine that was published in the June issue with the title of “Christ as a Social Reformer.” The article was so well received that Desmond decided to publish it as a booklet and, as added prestige, used one of Sir George Grey’s personal letters as a preface. Although it sounds odd for the future “Ragnar Redbeard” to pen such an article, a careful reading of “Christ as a Social Reformer” reveals it to be nothing short of a shrouded call for Christian men to take up arms in a socialist revolution — the antithesis of the catholic message that if Christ's kingdom had been of this world, then would his servants fight.
Whatever the intended outcome of the article, one that was not foreseen was the charge by Desmond’s enemies that he had plagiarized “Christ as a Social Reformer” from an American magazine. The charge was serious enough that a highly embarrassed Arthur Desmond finally worked up the pluck to write to Sir George Grey. However when one reads his protestations of innocence to Sir George, they seem to be an admission that the charges were correct.
Charges of plagiarism were not confined to “Christ as a Social Reformer”. When Desmond’s poem “The King that is to Come” was reprinted as “The Leader of the Future,” he was accused of plagiarizing the piece from American poet James Whitcomb Riley
’s “The Poet of the Future”. A comparison of the two poems does bear out the charge of plagiarism, which doesn’t bode well for Desmond’s innocence in the earlier charge.
Amidst this controversy, Desmond was very active on behalf of workers’ rights. During the Maritime strike of 1890 Desmond wrote: “How can we expect just legislation and equal laws when those who control private plundering concerns are our legislators.” Desmond was relentless with his condemnation of employers and those who, he said, had a “strangle hold” on Auckland’s commerce. At the head of his list was the Bank of New Zealand, which he charged was rife with corruption.
While openly writing against the government and big business, in 1890 Arthur Desmond used a typewriter to produce twenty-five copies of what he would later designate as the first edition of Might Is Right. Using the pseudonym “Redbeard” (“Ragnar” would be added to the name five years later), this first edition filled only 16 small pages and was titled Might Is Right Logic of To-Day. This edition also carried the notation “for private circulation” and “printed in Sydney” on the title page.
and her son Henry
, Jack Lang
, Tommy Walker
and Alfred Deakin
, also later Prime Minister before WWI. Then on 11 June 1893 the first issue of a new periodical instigated by Desmond and Lang appeared under the name of Hard Cash, a seditious and provocative publication that was printed in a secret location, and promoting the "Active Service Brigade" devoted to disrupting political rallies of opponents: a practice which eventually necessitated Desmond's fleeing the country with warrants out for his arrest. Henry Lawson composed a poem which appeared in the New Zealand periodical Fair Play in Wellington on 30 Dec 1893 in defense of Desmond in December 1893, which reads in part:
ARTHUR DESMOND
They are stoning Arthur Desmond, and, of course its understood
By the people of New Zealand that he isn't any good.
He's a plagarist, they tell us, and a scamp - but after all,
He is fighting pretty plucky with his back against the wall.
They are damning Arthur Desmond for the battle that he fought -
For his awful crime in saying what so many people thought.
He was driven from the country - but I like to see fair play -
and to slander absent brothers - why it ain't New Zealand's way.
Once I met Arthur Desmond "and I took him by the hand",
But I scarcely think the action spoilt my chance for the Promised Land;
And I think of Arthur gazing, with his earnest, thoughtful eyes,
Out beyond the brighter ages that we cannot realize.
and John Andrews, would call him “the Poet of Revolution” and “poet, actuary and revolutionary”. This observation is backed by another of Desmond’s Sydney friends, future New South Wales Premier Jack Lang
, who remembered Desmond as “a real revolutionary”.
The reality of Arthur Desmond’s philosophy and his abilities to promote it can be seen by the influence he exerted on his associates. One of these was the Australian poet Henry Lawson
, who was the brother-in-law to the aforementioned future New South Wales Premier Jack Lang. After his friendship with Desmond, Lawson’s poetry took a truly radical turn. (Of Arthur Desmond, Prime Minister Billy Hughes would recall that “His command of scarifying language was appalling.... Poetry oozed out of him at every pore.” Desmond certainly exerted some influence on Lawson, and one dubious critic has charged Henry Lawson with fascism, racism and even Nazism by drawing an outrageous comparison of his poetic sentiments to Adolf Hitler
’s Mein Kampf
. However more reputable scholars such as Manning Clarke and Colin Roderick have refuted such claims, pointing to Lawson's own unambiguous statement in print in the Albany Observer (Western Australia) from 1890: "Class, creed and nationality are words which should find no place in the vocabulary of the Australians, because these words are synonymous with everything that is hostile to peace and happiness in the world."
Throughout his time in Sydney, Arthur Desmond worked tirelessly to foment revolution with himself at its head. He was involved in something called the Active Service Brigade, where Desmond produced their journal, Justice for the Active Service Brigade, which was ultimately superseded by Desmond’s own journal, Hard Cash, subtitled “A magazine for finance, politics and religion.”
In her book In Our Time: Socialism and the Rise of Labor, 1885 -1905, Verity Burgmann notes that the ASB has been described as “highly centralised and secretive” and that the organization “described itself as a ‘strictly disciplined organization’. The Declaration signed by each member promised to assist in electing the ASB’s Supreme Directing Council, ‘and when duly elected and installed to obey their lawful commands — without question.’” The Brigade’s objectives were thus stated: “For the Nation — Social Co-operation. For the Citizen — Emancipation from Poverty Conditions, Competitive Commercialism, Industrial Wage Slavery, Tyrannical Authority, and Mental Bondage.”
Dr. Bob James writes: “Vance Marshall has claimed that ‘for six years... [Desmond’s] finger was traceable in every decisive movement associated with the [Australian] working class.” ‘Baarmutha’ reminisced: “In the early days of the political labor movement in this state [NSW], associated therewith as a molder of its platform and policy and tactics was a remarkable, spectacular character, Arthur Desmond, author of Might Is Right one of the greatest books ever written.”
Those who have read the pages of Hard Cash or any of Desmond’s other writings during his time in Sydney, will understand why Arthur Desmond stepped on powerful toes. During a cabinet meeting Colonial Secretary George R. Dibbs is reported to have held up a copy of Hard Cash and paid Arthur Desmond a threatening compliment: “This thing has cost us £3,000,000. What is the detective force of this city doing?” With such high-level pressure being brought to bear, Sydney’s top cops went into immediate action to shut down Hard Cash and to put Arthur Desmond in prison.
Not being able to locate Desmond, and for some reason bypassing William Hughes and Jack Lang, who helped Desmond publish Hard Cash, the minions of the law decided to arrest news agents William McNamara and Samuel A. Rosa for a show trial that is now remembered as the Sydney Anarchy Trial of February 1894. Of particular import is that both McNamara and Rosa, faced with jail, steadfastly refused to name Arthur Desmond as the journal’s publisher, which is a lasting testimony to the kind of loyalty Desmond instilled in his admirers. An incensed Justice Minister Thomas Michael Slattery made sure they paid the price. At the conclusion of the trial Justice Foster handed down sentences of six months in Parramatta Gaol for McNamara, and gave Rosa three months.
The obsession to persecute Desmond seems to have fallen to New South Wales Police detective Jules Pierre Rochaix, whose relentless pursuit of Desmond brought him a promotion from a grateful government. But in the end Desmond still eluded Rochaix, whose face was rubbed into his failure when the 4 November 1893 edition of the Sydney Worker carried a front page caricature of Rochaix surrounded by his newsagent victims in the company of a shadowy Satan — who represented the shadowy editor of Hard Cash, meaning Arthur Desmond.
With McNamara and Rosa in jail, Hard Cash closed down, Arthur Desmond found other avenues to publish incitement against the government. To ferret out Desmond, Detective Rochaix targeted the Active Service Brigade and its journal, Justice. In this Rochaix again failed to get Desmond, although by June he had arrested five men in Desmond’s stead and Sydney had another anarchy trial on its hands.
The Sydney Anarchy Trial of June 1894 saw Henry Tregarthan Douglas, John Dwyer, printer William Mason, Thomas Dodd and printer’s assistant George MacNevin standing before Justice Sir George Long-Innes in the Central Criminal Court, Sydney. The charge was criminal libel, which arose from a single paragraph published in Justice on 21 April 1894. The trial lasted little more than a day and on 13 June, after only a thirty minute deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts for all defendants. Judge Long-Innes, saying that it was “not desirable to stir up class hatreds in the community,” handed down terms of hard labor: Douglas, Dodd and Mason each received a nine-month sentence; Dwyer receiving six months and MacNevin one month. Long-Innes also ordered the prisoners sent to different prisons in an attempt to break up their association.
The notoriety of the anarchy trials was the reason behind the Australian Labor Party offering Arthur Desmond a seat in the New South Wales Parliament representing Durham in 1894. However, the revolutionary Desmond had no intention of serving in such a measly capacity and “... vehemently denounced those responsible for the canvass and absolutely refused to go for Parliamentary honors.” Instead, Desmond put his energies into producing yet another journal in which he took aim at his arch-enemy Justice Minister Thomas Slattery. The Standard Bearer differed from Hard Cash in one major way: Desmond now openly flaunted his name as the journal’s editor.
Mark G. Hearn, after examining the few surviving copies of The Standard Bearer preserved in the Louis Philips Papers, writes that Desmond repeated “the same formula of bank bashing and anti-Semitism'.” All Desmond accomplished with The Standard Bearer and Hard Kash was to harden the government’s resolve to bring him to justice.
Whether or not Desmond actually went to South Africa to fight with Rhodes is unknown. However, his attitude towards Rhodes was something akin to hero-worship and is a notable feature of Might Is Right. What is certain is that Desmond left Australia one step ahead of the law—a warrant for his arrest for sedition and treasonable utterances already having been issued. Eventually Desmond turned up in England where he turned out numerous revolutionary poetic pieces, most notably his “The Flames of Freedom”, which he signed “Catiline”. Like the historic Catiline
, Desmond advocated purifying the world by fire, which explains why he dared not put his name to the piece. From England Desmond traveled to New York
, as his friend Julian Stuart recalled: “Soon after I got a letter from New York saying he was taking another name just for luck”.
Desmond had several Australian friends who had anarchist contacts in Chicago, which likely explains why he chose Chicago as his new home. He appears in the 1896 Chicago city directory
where his occupation is listed as a “reporter”. What we do know from the preface to the 1896 Chicago edition of Might Is Right, which Desmond re-titled The Survival of the Fittest, or the Philosophy of Power, is that he spent much of 1895 looking for a publisher. When The Survival of the Fittest was finally published in 1896, Desmond used the pseudonym Arthur Uing, which was a spelling variation of his mother’s maiden name, Ewing. It was under Arthur Uing that Desmond registered his copyright in 1896.
One of the first persons to receive a copy of The Survival of the Fittest was Desmond’s Sydney friend, John Dwyer. His personal copy of The Survival of the Fittest is now preserved in the Dwyer Papers at the Mitchell Collection of State Library of New South Wales, and in that original one finds that Dwyer had written on the title page under "Ragnar Redbeard" the name "Arthur Desmond".
In 1897 a business called the Adolph Mueller Company was established at 108 South Clark Street, Chicago, whose sole interest seems to have been promoting and selling Ragnar Redbeard’s books and writings. It was about this time that Desmond began promoting his doctorate of law (LL.D.) from the University of Chicago
. Aided by staff members, Desmond biographer Darrell Conder extensively researched the records of the University of Chicago and found no such doctorate had ever been awarded. In fact, the U of C’s first LL.D. was awarded to President William McKinley
in 1897, a year after Desmond was claiming his doctorate.
In 1898 Arthur Desmond traveled to London where he published an English edition of The Survival of the Fittest, which was "Printed and published by Arthur Uing, 19 Henrietta St., Covent Garden, London; and at Rose St., Darlington, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1897." While in London he joined with John Basil Barnhill, who used the pseudonym John Erwin McCall, to produce yet another journal, The Eagle and the Serpent, which was founded to promote Friedrich Nietzsche
’s philosophy. While there Desmond also released a booklet titled Women and War printed by Holbrook & Daniels, London, 1898. The booklet was, in fact, simply a reprint of chapter six of The Survival of the Fittest. Desmond also printed a series of pamphlets he titled Redbeard’s Review, which were meant to draw attention to his book.
About this time Arthur Desmond would later claim that he took time off to involve himself in South Africa’s Second Boer War
, that he was in fact “a member of Gen. ‘Bob’s’ light horse at Cape Town and Pretoria...” Arthur Desmond also claims to have been in the largest and bloodiest single battle of the Boer War — the Battle of Baardeberg fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modderrivier (or "Mud River") in the Orange Free State
. As heroic as this information is, as with everything about Arthur Desmond’s life, there are a few complications—most notable one being that the dates of the Boer War and Desmond’s personal life don’t fit. Nevertheless, when Desmond was arrested and put on trial in Chicago in 1904 he made newspaper headlines by claiming to be a Boer War vet, and by claiming that the rifle he used to hold off a troop of Chicago police officers was one he had captured in the Battle of Baardeberg.
By 1902 Desmond was living in Chicago using the alias of Richard Thurland and publishing another edition of The Survival of the Fittest, which he re-titled Might Is Right, or the Survival of the Fittest and released in 1903 through Adolph Mueller Publishers. It was during this time Desmond set up an advertising partnership with prominent Chicagoan Will H. Dilg called Thurland & Thurland, of which Arthur Desmond is listed as manager in the 1903 Chicago City Directory. Dilg and Desmond were involved in more than a commercial venture. They also co-wrote a book titled Rival Caesars A Romance of Ambition, Love and War. Being the tale of a Vice-President, a Major-General and three brilliant and beautiful women, using the pseudonym 'Desmond Dilg.' The book was released in 1903 by Desmond’s own Thurland & Thurland Publishers, Chicago, which actually was the only book ever printed by the company.
Desmond biographer Darrell W. Conder uses persuasive argument, including quotes from Rival Caesars blatant 'might is right' philosophy, to show that Desmond’s latest book was actually book II of Might Is Right, which "Ragnar Redbeard" had promised would be released when “circumstances demanded it”.Rival Caesars wasn’t a big success, making surviving copies of the book very rare. In fact, shortly after its release the partnership between Desmond and Dilg ceased.
By 1904 Thurland & Thurland and Desmond Commercial Advertising Bureau were located in the single office of the general manager of the Ser-Vis Ice Cream and Candy Company located at 155 Michigan Street. The reason for the shared address was that Arthur Desmond was the general manager of the Ser-Vis Ice Cream and Candy Company and was using his company office for an advertising sideline. These facts came out on 18 March 1904 when Desmond was arrested in his office—an arrest that made the pages of the Chicago Daily Tribune.
The trouble arose when a telephone inspector wanted to enter the factory for some routine maintenance, and Desmond refused. The man returned with police, and Desmond responded by holding them off with his rifle that, he claimed, he had captured in the Boer War. In the end, Desmond was overpowered and thrown in the Cook County Jail to await trail. However, Desmond’s oratory skills convinced a judge and jury that he was the victim and he was set free.
). Presumably the notoriously atheistic Desmond made the conciliation of marrying inside a church because Fredericke’s family was staunchly religious. It is the marriage record of St. James Episcopal Church that provides the names of Desmond’s parents, although as with everything in Desmond’s clandestine career, one must wonder if he supplied the right information.
To this union was born a son, Arthur Konar Walther Desmond, often found listed in records as Arthur Desmond, Jr., and Arthur Thurland, Jr. By the time the 1910 U.S. census for Illinois was conducted, Desmond was living alone with his young son at 2647 Reese Avenue in Evanston, Illinois
and telling the census taker that he was a widower, although Fredericke was very much alive and living with her family in Gary, Indiana. On 4 May 1913, Fredericke Desmond, age 31, died of pulmonary tuberculosis in a Logansport, Indiana
sanatarium. She was buried in the Waldheim Cemetery in Gary, Indiana
beside her parents.
In Evanston, Desmond opened a book selling business he called Thurland & Thurland Booksellers, and produced another journal titled The Lion’s Paw. This latest journal was anti-government, anti-religion and heavily promoted the philosophy of 'might is right'. At this time Desmond contracted with W. J. Robbins & Co., Ltd., 20 Midhope Abbey Cromer St., Gray’s Inn Road, London to reprint a new edition of Might Is Right. Under the Thurland & Thurland imprint, Desmond also produce other books, which he did by removing publishing information and pasting his own labels on the title page. Some of the books have survived and will be found marked “THURLAND & THURLAND, EAGLE & SERPENT BOOK DEPARTMENT, EVANSTON (Suburb of Chicago) ILLINOIS.” This includes a 1910 edition of Might Is Right with the Thurland & Thurland label pasted over W. J. Robbins & Co., Ltd.
At some point after 1911 Arthur Desmond dissolved Thurland & Thurland and left Evanston for his old neighborhood in Chicago’s Near North Side where he rented an apartment at 1615 Granville Avenue near the Newberry Library
. Just a few blocks from his apartment Desmond opened a used bookstore at 364 Wendell Street calling it the House O’ Gowrie, Importers — Publishers — Printers — Booksellers. Despite the lofty name, the House O’ Gowrie was a one-man show run by “Richard Thurland”, a.k.a., Arthur Desmond.
In the 1920s Arthur Desmond made the acquaintance of Jack Jones, the proprietor of Chicago’s notorious Dil Pickle Club
in Tooker Alley — which was located in Desmond’s own Near North Side neighborhood. In 1927 Jones’ Dil Pickle Press used the original, although reworked, Might Is Right printers plates to produce the last Redbeard era edition of Might Is Right. These were sold from Desmond’s House ‘O Gowrie and from Jones’ Dil Pickle Club.
Although during the 1920s Redbeard fans had circulated a number of rumors about his death — that he was really Ambrose Bierce
, and that he, having traveled down to Mexico to join the infamous Pancho Villa
, was stood against a wall and shot during the Madero revolt. Another rumor said that he had died in 1918 fighting with Field Marshal Sir Edmund Allenby’s troops in Palestine
. But the truth of Desmond’s death is a little less glorious. On the morning of 23 January 1929 Arthur Desmond suffered a stroke in his apartment at 1353 North Clark Street, just a few blocks north of the Newberry Library. He was taken to Cook County Hospital on West Harrison Street where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy was performed by Dr. E. L. Benjamin and found that Desmond had died of a “spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage”. Desmond’s Illinois death certificate definitely establishes the link between the deceased individual and “Ragnar Redbeard”, as the name of deceased is listed as "Arthur Desmond, alias Richard Thurland".
Arthur Desmond’s remains were taken to Shute Funeral Directors at 716 North State Street, Chicago. After embalming, his body was removed to Gary, Indiana where it was presumably laid to rest in an unmarked grave near his estranged wife, Fredericke Desmond, in the Waldheim Cemetery.
Lawyer J. Kendall S. Mitchell was hired to handle Desmond’s estate. Desmond’s bookstore, which was the only tangible asset left behind, included “15,000 miscellaneous second hand books @ 5¢ each $750.00 4,000 miscellaneous second hand books @ 10¢ each $400.00 [total] $1150.00.”
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
politician, Australian anarchist, poet and author. Today Desmond is best remembered for his pseudonymously written books Might Is Right
Might Is Right
Might Is Right, or The Survival of the Fittest, is a book by pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard. It heavily advocates social Darwinism and was first published in 1890...
and Rival Caesars.
Early years
As with most aspects of Arthur Desmond’s life, there is a snag by starting his biography with his birth statistics. Arthur Desmond spent his adult life concealing his origins as well as his identity, which is understandable when one considers his radical persona, Ragnar Redbeard, and his daring, anti-social, anti-political and heretical Victorian book, Might Is Right.This is why George G. Reeve, Desmond’s first biographer, could honestly write that "To many another person seeking his acquaintance Desmond held aloof, and to a great extent surrounded himself — ‘behind the veil’ as it were — by a ‘mystery halo’ and a sacrosanctness hard to penetrate." Desmond’s second biographer, Darrell W. Conder, concurs and indeed, after presenting the tangle that constitutes Desmond’s life in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, questions not only Desmond’s origins, but his actual birth name. This doubt is based on Desmond’s continuous use of pseudonyms and aliases throughout his adult life. George G. Reeve continues “Arthur Desmond, for that was the real name of ‘Ragnar Redbeard’ was a native of Hawkes [sic] Bay, New Zealand, where he was born about the year 1842 of Irish ancestry.” In 1921 The International Communist carried a short article on Desmond in which it was claimed that he was “... a native of Napier, Hawkes [sic] Bay, Maoriland”. (The International Communist for Saturday, 17 September 1921, p. 2 article “Redbeard in Sydney” by 'Gullangulong') New Zealand National Dictionary biographer Rachel Barrowman adds: “Arthur Desmond was unknown to the electors of Hawke’s Bay when he stood for Parliament in 1884
New Zealand general election, 1884
The New Zealand general election of 1884 was held on 22 July to elect a total of 95 MPs to the 9th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The Māori vote was held on 21 July. A total number of 137,686 voters turned out to vote.-References:...
. 'We only know that Mr. Desmond is a cattle-drover, and that he is of Radical tendencies’, the editor of the Hawke’s Bay Herald wrote. He was said to be 25 years old [placing his birth in 1859], born in New Zealand of Irish descent. He had been in Hawke’s Bay since the late 1870s, and had worked as a musterer in south Taranaki. Of his background and personal life nothing more is known.” Of the three candidates, Desmond came last.
However, the most detailed information about Arthur Desmond’s origins come from records after his immigration to the United States in 1895-96. On the occasion of his first appearance in a U.S. census record in 1900, Desmond declared that he was born in England in the year 1859 of parents who were also born in England. This declaration was backed by Desmond’s Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
death certificate on which his son stated that Desmond and his father were both natives of Northumberland, England. This information is corroborated by Desmond’s 1904 Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
marriage record. In that instance Desmond declared that he was born in place called Claud, Northumberland, England in 1859 to Samuel Desmond and Sarah Ewing. Nevertheless, to compound matters, in the 1910 U.S. census record Arthur Desmond claimed his birthplace as California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, but changed that to England in his last census appearance in 1920.
Whatever the truth of his origins, the first concrete evidence of Arthur Desmond’s life comes when he stood for parliament in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in 1884. His two addresses to the Electors of Hawke’s Bay still survive. In one of the addresses, Desmond said: “You, yourselves, are principally to blame for allowing this in the past. You have allowed great squatters of the worst type to rule you to their own advantage; they have themselves grabbed the good land, and they attempt to pose as your friends by offering you the crumbs that fall from their table. You have the power in your own hands now, and if you do not wish to be for ever serfs of territorial gods almighty; if you have got any of the energy of your progenitors, you will not stand this kind of injustice any longer. You will say to them with me — Wealth that we make for you, money we earn; give us our share of them, give us a turn. If you have the pluck to say this, then return me as your representative, and I will lead you.”
With only a dismal 190 votes, Arthur Desmond lost the 1884 election. However, he didn’t give up on politics and sought out the patronage of Sir George Grey KCB, former Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, former Governor of Cape Colony in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, former Premier of New Zealand, a prolific writer and founder of the prestigious Grey College and Grey High School in Port Elizabeth. Since Sir George was a staunch defender of the Maoris, Arthur Desmond also took up their cause, a move that was no small issue in the New Zealand of his day.
In 1887 Arthur Desmond again stood for Parliament, this time running on a platform that consisted of a concentrated attack on landlords, bankers and monopolists. Desmond advocated land reform, the nationalization of large estates and banks, and promoted Henry George
Henry George
Henry George was an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land...
’s single taxation—a proposal that taxation should be confined to land rent, since, in Desmond’s view, land was the real source of wealth. When he publicly denounced bank directors as “scoundrels”, estate owners as “blood-sucking leeches” and the local press as “hirelings of monopoly”, Desmond was essentially standing on a socialist platform. Additionally, Desmond championed the Crown’s right of preemption of Maori land, which meant the resumption of a 6 February 1840 agreement whereby only the Crown could buy land from the Maoris. This move made Desmond a lot of enemies among European New Zealanders.
In his second parliamentary attempt Arthur Desmond made a respectable showing of 562 votes to the 968 of the sitting member, Capt. W. R. Russell. An unemployed and no doubt discouraged Arthur Desmond left town to find work in the timber mills of Poverty Bay and on the farms of the Waikato. Of those latest hard times he would write: “Many a time when lying on my back in a bush whare or a tent after a day of grinding toil, have I resolved that if ever I had a chance to sweep away such a brutal system, it would not be neglected.”
In February 1889, 60-year-old Te Kooti
Te Kooti
Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...
, the leader of the Hau Haus, decided to visit Gisborne, the land of his birth. This impending visit caused an uproar among the European population because they were convinced that the chief was there to prevent the sale of Maori land. For Arthur Desmond Te Kooti’s action was disastrous since he found himself in the untenable position of supporting the chief against New Zealand’s European population over an issue that had been a major plank in his parliamentary aspiration—the Crown’s right of preemption.
In Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawkes Bay. It stretches for 10 kilometres from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the northeast. The city of Gisborne is located on the northern shore of the bay...
, at a packed schoolhouse in Makaraka, Arthur Desmond faced a meeting of some five hundred angry settlers on Te Kooti’s behalf. Amidst talk of armed resistance and bloodshed, Desmond explained to his brethren that he knew many of the chief’s supporters and that the Maori meant them no harm. His arguments were not convincing, and in the resulting chaos some of the settlers grabbed Desmond and bodily threw him from the schoolhouse.
Several days later another meeting of some eight hundred settlers took place, and a resolution was passed to stop Te Kooti’s visit—by force if necessary. Once again Arthur Desmond was there to speak in favor of the chief. When he let it slip that he had been in contact with the Maori leaders and went on to forcefully threaten that the settlers had no legal or moral right to interfere with Te Kooti’s visit, fights erupted. This time police officers had to escort Desmond from the meeting for his own protection. In the New Zealand Herald Desmond was called the “pakeha [white] emissary from the Hau Haus” and was reported lucky to have left the meeting alive.
In the end the crisis was averted when Te Kooti and seventy of his followers were arrested by the government and thrown in jail. Desmond went on to pen a poem dedicated to Chief Te Kooti, which he titled the “Song of Te Kooti.”
According to the preface of the 1896 edition of Might Is Right, which was released with the title of The Survival of the Fittest, it was in the aftermath of his 1887 parliamentary bid that Arthur Desmond first conceived of and began writing Might Is Right. Obviously the book had not taken its final form because in 1890 Desmond submitted an article to Zealandia magazine that was published in the June issue with the title of “Christ as a Social Reformer.” The article was so well received that Desmond decided to publish it as a booklet and, as added prestige, used one of Sir George Grey’s personal letters as a preface. Although it sounds odd for the future “Ragnar Redbeard” to pen such an article, a careful reading of “Christ as a Social Reformer” reveals it to be nothing short of a shrouded call for Christian men to take up arms in a socialist revolution — the antithesis of the catholic message that if Christ's kingdom had been of this world, then would his servants fight.
Whatever the intended outcome of the article, one that was not foreseen was the charge by Desmond’s enemies that he had plagiarized “Christ as a Social Reformer” from an American magazine. The charge was serious enough that a highly embarrassed Arthur Desmond finally worked up the pluck to write to Sir George Grey. However when one reads his protestations of innocence to Sir George, they seem to be an admission that the charges were correct.
Charges of plagiarism were not confined to “Christ as a Social Reformer”. When Desmond’s poem “The King that is to Come” was reprinted as “The Leader of the Future,” he was accused of plagiarizing the piece from American poet James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the Hoosier Poet and Children's Poet for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively...
’s “The Poet of the Future”. A comparison of the two poems does bear out the charge of plagiarism, which doesn’t bode well for Desmond’s innocence in the earlier charge.
Amidst this controversy, Desmond was very active on behalf of workers’ rights. During the Maritime strike of 1890 Desmond wrote: “How can we expect just legislation and equal laws when those who control private plundering concerns are our legislators.” Desmond was relentless with his condemnation of employers and those who, he said, had a “strangle hold” on Auckland’s commerce. At the head of his list was the Bank of New Zealand, which he charged was rife with corruption.
While openly writing against the government and big business, in 1890 Arthur Desmond used a typewriter to produce twenty-five copies of what he would later designate as the first edition of Might Is Right. Using the pseudonym “Redbeard” (“Ragnar” would be added to the name five years later), this first edition filled only 16 small pages and was titled Might Is Right Logic of To-Day. This edition also carried the notation “for private circulation” and “printed in Sydney” on the title page.
Emigration to Australia
On 10 Oct 1892 Arthur Desmond forever left New Zealand behind when he walked down the gangplank of the S.S. Houroto into Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The truth of Arthur Desmond’s emigration from New Zealand is summed up by Len Fox, who in his 1968 article observed that Desmond “seems to have had no particular love for any country”. But Desmond did have an unquenchable thirst for political activism and social agitation, and upon arriving in Sydney he became associated with William Morris Hughes, later Prime Minister of Australia during WWI. Desmond collaborated with Hughes on a political broadsheet which evolved into the radical periodical they entitled The New Order, and he became part of the circle surrounding McNamara's Bookshop at 221 Castlereagh Street (demolished in 1922), associating with Louisa LawsonLouisa Lawson
Louisa Lawson was an Australian writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. She was the mother of the poet and author Henry Lawson.-Early life:...
and her son Henry
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
, Jack Lang
Jack Lang (Australian politician)
John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
, Tommy Walker
Thomas Walker (Australian politician)
Thomas Walker was an Australian politician, a member of two different state parliaments.Walker was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, the son of corn miller and merchant Thomas Walker, and Ellen née Eccles. He was educated at Leyland Grammar School, then worked as a schoolteacher at Preston for...
and Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin , Australian politician, was a leader of the movement for Australian federation and later the second Prime Minister of Australia. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Deakin was a major contributor to the establishment of liberal reforms in the colony of Victoria, including the...
, also later Prime Minister before WWI. Then on 11 June 1893 the first issue of a new periodical instigated by Desmond and Lang appeared under the name of Hard Cash, a seditious and provocative publication that was printed in a secret location, and promoting the "Active Service Brigade" devoted to disrupting political rallies of opponents: a practice which eventually necessitated Desmond's fleeing the country with warrants out for his arrest. Henry Lawson composed a poem which appeared in the New Zealand periodical Fair Play in Wellington on 30 Dec 1893 in defense of Desmond in December 1893, which reads in part:
ARTHUR DESMOND
They are stoning Arthur Desmond, and, of course its understood
By the people of New Zealand that he isn't any good.
He's a plagarist, they tell us, and a scamp - but after all,
He is fighting pretty plucky with his back against the wall.
They are damning Arthur Desmond for the battle that he fought -
For his awful crime in saying what so many people thought.
He was driven from the country - but I like to see fair play -
and to slander absent brothers - why it ain't New Zealand's way.
Once I met Arthur Desmond "and I took him by the hand",
But I scarcely think the action spoilt my chance for the Promised Land;
And I think of Arthur gazing, with his earnest, thoughtful eyes,
Out beyond the brighter ages that we cannot realize.
Philosophy
For those who want to see in Arthur Desmond a benevolent socialist — a man of the people who wrote in satire—they will find his writings, poetry and personal correspondence revealing the opposite. Culminating with the release of Might Is Right, Arthur Desmond literary career consistently advocated open revolution against the government. Indeed, Desmond friends, future Australian Prime Minister Billy HughesBilly Hughes
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
and John Andrews, would call him “the Poet of Revolution” and “poet, actuary and revolutionary”. This observation is backed by another of Desmond’s Sydney friends, future New South Wales Premier Jack Lang
Jack Lang (Australian politician)
John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
, who remembered Desmond as “a real revolutionary”.
The reality of Arthur Desmond’s philosophy and his abilities to promote it can be seen by the influence he exerted on his associates. One of these was the Australian poet Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
, who was the brother-in-law to the aforementioned future New South Wales Premier Jack Lang. After his friendship with Desmond, Lawson’s poetry took a truly radical turn. (Of Arthur Desmond, Prime Minister Billy Hughes would recall that “His command of scarifying language was appalling.... Poetry oozed out of him at every pore.” Desmond certainly exerted some influence on Lawson, and one dubious critic has charged Henry Lawson with fascism, racism and even Nazism by drawing an outrageous comparison of his poetic sentiments to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
’s Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
. However more reputable scholars such as Manning Clarke and Colin Roderick have refuted such claims, pointing to Lawson's own unambiguous statement in print in the Albany Observer (Western Australia) from 1890: "Class, creed and nationality are words which should find no place in the vocabulary of the Australians, because these words are synonymous with everything that is hostile to peace and happiness in the world."
Throughout his time in Sydney, Arthur Desmond worked tirelessly to foment revolution with himself at its head. He was involved in something called the Active Service Brigade, where Desmond produced their journal, Justice for the Active Service Brigade, which was ultimately superseded by Desmond’s own journal, Hard Cash, subtitled “A magazine for finance, politics and religion.”
In her book In Our Time: Socialism and the Rise of Labor, 1885 -1905, Verity Burgmann notes that the ASB has been described as “highly centralised and secretive” and that the organization “described itself as a ‘strictly disciplined organization’. The Declaration signed by each member promised to assist in electing the ASB’s Supreme Directing Council, ‘and when duly elected and installed to obey their lawful commands — without question.’” The Brigade’s objectives were thus stated: “For the Nation — Social Co-operation. For the Citizen — Emancipation from Poverty Conditions, Competitive Commercialism, Industrial Wage Slavery, Tyrannical Authority, and Mental Bondage.”
Dr. Bob James writes: “Vance Marshall has claimed that ‘for six years... [Desmond’s] finger was traceable in every decisive movement associated with the [Australian] working class.” ‘Baarmutha’ reminisced: “In the early days of the political labor movement in this state [NSW], associated therewith as a molder of its platform and policy and tactics was a remarkable, spectacular character, Arthur Desmond, author of Might Is Right one of the greatest books ever written.”
Those who have read the pages of Hard Cash or any of Desmond’s other writings during his time in Sydney, will understand why Arthur Desmond stepped on powerful toes. During a cabinet meeting Colonial Secretary George R. Dibbs is reported to have held up a copy of Hard Cash and paid Arthur Desmond a threatening compliment: “This thing has cost us £3,000,000. What is the detective force of this city doing?” With such high-level pressure being brought to bear, Sydney’s top cops went into immediate action to shut down Hard Cash and to put Arthur Desmond in prison.
Not being able to locate Desmond, and for some reason bypassing William Hughes and Jack Lang, who helped Desmond publish Hard Cash, the minions of the law decided to arrest news agents William McNamara and Samuel A. Rosa for a show trial that is now remembered as the Sydney Anarchy Trial of February 1894. Of particular import is that both McNamara and Rosa, faced with jail, steadfastly refused to name Arthur Desmond as the journal’s publisher, which is a lasting testimony to the kind of loyalty Desmond instilled in his admirers. An incensed Justice Minister Thomas Michael Slattery made sure they paid the price. At the conclusion of the trial Justice Foster handed down sentences of six months in Parramatta Gaol for McNamara, and gave Rosa three months.
The obsession to persecute Desmond seems to have fallen to New South Wales Police detective Jules Pierre Rochaix, whose relentless pursuit of Desmond brought him a promotion from a grateful government. But in the end Desmond still eluded Rochaix, whose face was rubbed into his failure when the 4 November 1893 edition of the Sydney Worker carried a front page caricature of Rochaix surrounded by his newsagent victims in the company of a shadowy Satan — who represented the shadowy editor of Hard Cash, meaning Arthur Desmond.
With McNamara and Rosa in jail, Hard Cash closed down, Arthur Desmond found other avenues to publish incitement against the government. To ferret out Desmond, Detective Rochaix targeted the Active Service Brigade and its journal, Justice. In this Rochaix again failed to get Desmond, although by June he had arrested five men in Desmond’s stead and Sydney had another anarchy trial on its hands.
The Sydney Anarchy Trial of June 1894 saw Henry Tregarthan Douglas, John Dwyer, printer William Mason, Thomas Dodd and printer’s assistant George MacNevin standing before Justice Sir George Long-Innes in the Central Criminal Court, Sydney. The charge was criminal libel, which arose from a single paragraph published in Justice on 21 April 1894. The trial lasted little more than a day and on 13 June, after only a thirty minute deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts for all defendants. Judge Long-Innes, saying that it was “not desirable to stir up class hatreds in the community,” handed down terms of hard labor: Douglas, Dodd and Mason each received a nine-month sentence; Dwyer receiving six months and MacNevin one month. Long-Innes also ordered the prisoners sent to different prisons in an attempt to break up their association.
The notoriety of the anarchy trials was the reason behind the Australian Labor Party offering Arthur Desmond a seat in the New South Wales Parliament representing Durham in 1894. However, the revolutionary Desmond had no intention of serving in such a measly capacity and “... vehemently denounced those responsible for the canvass and absolutely refused to go for Parliamentary honors.” Instead, Desmond put his energies into producing yet another journal in which he took aim at his arch-enemy Justice Minister Thomas Slattery. The Standard Bearer differed from Hard Cash in one major way: Desmond now openly flaunted his name as the journal’s editor.
Mark G. Hearn, after examining the few surviving copies of The Standard Bearer preserved in the Louis Philips Papers, writes that Desmond repeated “the same formula of bank bashing and anti-Semitism'.” All Desmond accomplished with The Standard Bearer and Hard Kash was to harden the government’s resolve to bring him to justice.
Emigration to the United States
With Justice Minister Thomas Slattery breathing fire, in the summer of 1894 Desmond folded The Standard Bearer and its successor, Hard Kash, after only three issues, and decided to take a permanent vacation. Desmond’s friend, John Andrews, writes: “[Desmond] quitted Australia in disgust, and, according to one report, went to South Africa to enlist under Cecil Rhodes, who was then intent on founding a new Republic."Whether or not Desmond actually went to South Africa to fight with Rhodes is unknown. However, his attitude towards Rhodes was something akin to hero-worship and is a notable feature of Might Is Right. What is certain is that Desmond left Australia one step ahead of the law—a warrant for his arrest for sedition and treasonable utterances already having been issued. Eventually Desmond turned up in England where he turned out numerous revolutionary poetic pieces, most notably his “The Flames of Freedom”, which he signed “Catiline”. Like the historic Catiline
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
, Desmond advocated purifying the world by fire, which explains why he dared not put his name to the piece. From England Desmond traveled to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, as his friend Julian Stuart recalled: “Soon after I got a letter from New York saying he was taking another name just for luck”.
Desmond had several Australian friends who had anarchist contacts in Chicago, which likely explains why he chose Chicago as his new home. He appears in the 1896 Chicago city directory
City directory
A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. Antedating telephone directories, they have been in use for centuries....
where his occupation is listed as a “reporter”. What we do know from the preface to the 1896 Chicago edition of Might Is Right, which Desmond re-titled The Survival of the Fittest, or the Philosophy of Power, is that he spent much of 1895 looking for a publisher. When The Survival of the Fittest was finally published in 1896, Desmond used the pseudonym Arthur Uing, which was a spelling variation of his mother’s maiden name, Ewing. It was under Arthur Uing that Desmond registered his copyright in 1896.
One of the first persons to receive a copy of The Survival of the Fittest was Desmond’s Sydney friend, John Dwyer. His personal copy of The Survival of the Fittest is now preserved in the Dwyer Papers at the Mitchell Collection of State Library of New South Wales, and in that original one finds that Dwyer had written on the title page under "Ragnar Redbeard" the name "Arthur Desmond".
In 1897 a business called the Adolph Mueller Company was established at 108 South Clark Street, Chicago, whose sole interest seems to have been promoting and selling Ragnar Redbeard’s books and writings. It was about this time that Desmond began promoting his doctorate of law (LL.D.) from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Aided by staff members, Desmond biographer Darrell Conder extensively researched the records of the University of Chicago and found no such doctorate had ever been awarded. In fact, the U of C’s first LL.D. was awarded to President William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
in 1897, a year after Desmond was claiming his doctorate.
In 1898 Arthur Desmond traveled to London where he published an English edition of The Survival of the Fittest, which was "Printed and published by Arthur Uing, 19 Henrietta St., Covent Garden, London; and at Rose St., Darlington, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1897." While in London he joined with John Basil Barnhill, who used the pseudonym John Erwin McCall, to produce yet another journal, The Eagle and the Serpent, which was founded to promote Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
’s philosophy. While there Desmond also released a booklet titled Women and War printed by Holbrook & Daniels, London, 1898. The booklet was, in fact, simply a reprint of chapter six of The Survival of the Fittest. Desmond also printed a series of pamphlets he titled Redbeard’s Review, which were meant to draw attention to his book.
About this time Arthur Desmond would later claim that he took time off to involve himself in South Africa’s Second Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
, that he was in fact “a member of Gen. ‘Bob’s’ light horse at Cape Town and Pretoria...” Arthur Desmond also claims to have been in the largest and bloodiest single battle of the Boer War — the Battle of Baardeberg fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modderrivier (or "Mud River") in the Orange Free State
Orange Free State
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...
. As heroic as this information is, as with everything about Arthur Desmond’s life, there are a few complications—most notable one being that the dates of the Boer War and Desmond’s personal life don’t fit. Nevertheless, when Desmond was arrested and put on trial in Chicago in 1904 he made newspaper headlines by claiming to be a Boer War vet, and by claiming that the rifle he used to hold off a troop of Chicago police officers was one he had captured in the Battle of Baardeberg.
By 1902 Desmond was living in Chicago using the alias of Richard Thurland and publishing another edition of The Survival of the Fittest, which he re-titled Might Is Right, or the Survival of the Fittest and released in 1903 through Adolph Mueller Publishers. It was during this time Desmond set up an advertising partnership with prominent Chicagoan Will H. Dilg called Thurland & Thurland, of which Arthur Desmond is listed as manager in the 1903 Chicago City Directory. Dilg and Desmond were involved in more than a commercial venture. They also co-wrote a book titled Rival Caesars A Romance of Ambition, Love and War. Being the tale of a Vice-President, a Major-General and three brilliant and beautiful women, using the pseudonym 'Desmond Dilg.' The book was released in 1903 by Desmond’s own Thurland & Thurland Publishers, Chicago, which actually was the only book ever printed by the company.
Desmond biographer Darrell W. Conder uses persuasive argument, including quotes from Rival Caesars blatant 'might is right' philosophy, to show that Desmond’s latest book was actually book II of Might Is Right, which "Ragnar Redbeard" had promised would be released when “circumstances demanded it”.Rival Caesars wasn’t a big success, making surviving copies of the book very rare. In fact, shortly after its release the partnership between Desmond and Dilg ceased.
By 1904 Thurland & Thurland and Desmond Commercial Advertising Bureau were located in the single office of the general manager of the Ser-Vis Ice Cream and Candy Company located at 155 Michigan Street. The reason for the shared address was that Arthur Desmond was the general manager of the Ser-Vis Ice Cream and Candy Company and was using his company office for an advertising sideline. These facts came out on 18 March 1904 when Desmond was arrested in his office—an arrest that made the pages of the Chicago Daily Tribune.
The trouble arose when a telephone inspector wanted to enter the factory for some routine maintenance, and Desmond refused. The man returned with police, and Desmond responded by holding them off with his rifle that, he claimed, he had captured in the Boer War. In the end, Desmond was overpowered and thrown in the Cook County Jail to await trail. However, Desmond’s oratory skills convinced a judge and jury that he was the victim and he was set free.
Personal life, last years and death
On 1 September 1904 the 45-year-old Arthur Desmond married 22-year-old Fredericke “von” Woldt in the parish house of St. James Episcopal Church (now St. James Cathedral, ChicagoSt. James Cathedral, Chicago
St. James Cathedral or formally Cathedral of Saint James is the motherchurch of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Diocese of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. It is the oldest church of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal tradition in the Chicago area, having been founded in 1834. ...
). Presumably the notoriously atheistic Desmond made the conciliation of marrying inside a church because Fredericke’s family was staunchly religious. It is the marriage record of St. James Episcopal Church that provides the names of Desmond’s parents, although as with everything in Desmond’s clandestine career, one must wonder if he supplied the right information.
To this union was born a son, Arthur Konar Walther Desmond, often found listed in records as Arthur Desmond, Jr., and Arthur Thurland, Jr. By the time the 1910 U.S. census for Illinois was conducted, Desmond was living alone with his young son at 2647 Reese Avenue in Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
and telling the census taker that he was a widower, although Fredericke was very much alive and living with her family in Gary, Indiana. On 4 May 1913, Fredericke Desmond, age 31, died of pulmonary tuberculosis in a Logansport, Indiana
Logansport, Indiana
Logansport is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, Indiana, United States. The population was 18,396 at the 2010 census. Logansport is located in northern Indiana, at the junction of the Wabash and Eel rivers, northeast of Lafayette.-History:...
sanatarium. She was buried in the Waldheim Cemetery in Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...
beside her parents.
In Evanston, Desmond opened a book selling business he called Thurland & Thurland Booksellers, and produced another journal titled The Lion’s Paw. This latest journal was anti-government, anti-religion and heavily promoted the philosophy of 'might is right'. At this time Desmond contracted with W. J. Robbins & Co., Ltd., 20 Midhope Abbey Cromer St., Gray’s Inn Road, London to reprint a new edition of Might Is Right. Under the Thurland & Thurland imprint, Desmond also produce other books, which he did by removing publishing information and pasting his own labels on the title page. Some of the books have survived and will be found marked “THURLAND & THURLAND, EAGLE & SERPENT BOOK DEPARTMENT, EVANSTON (Suburb of Chicago) ILLINOIS.” This includes a 1910 edition of Might Is Right with the Thurland & Thurland label pasted over W. J. Robbins & Co., Ltd.
At some point after 1911 Arthur Desmond dissolved Thurland & Thurland and left Evanston for his old neighborhood in Chicago’s Near North Side where he rented an apartment at 1615 Granville Avenue near the Newberry Library
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...
. Just a few blocks from his apartment Desmond opened a used bookstore at 364 Wendell Street calling it the House O’ Gowrie, Importers — Publishers — Printers — Booksellers. Despite the lofty name, the House O’ Gowrie was a one-man show run by “Richard Thurland”, a.k.a., Arthur Desmond.
In the 1920s Arthur Desmond made the acquaintance of Jack Jones, the proprietor of Chicago’s notorious Dil Pickle Club
Dil Pickle Club
The Dil Pickle Club or Dill Pickle Club was once a popular Bohemian club in Chicago, Illinois between 1917 and 1935. The Dil Pickle was known as a speakeasy, cabaret and theatre and was influential during the "Chicago Renaissance" as it allowed a forum for free thinkers...
in Tooker Alley — which was located in Desmond’s own Near North Side neighborhood. In 1927 Jones’ Dil Pickle Press used the original, although reworked, Might Is Right printers plates to produce the last Redbeard era edition of Might Is Right. These were sold from Desmond’s House ‘O Gowrie and from Jones’ Dil Pickle Club.
Although during the 1920s Redbeard fans had circulated a number of rumors about his death — that he was really Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
, and that he, having traveled down to Mexico to join the infamous Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
, was stood against a wall and shot during the Madero revolt. Another rumor said that he had died in 1918 fighting with Field Marshal Sir Edmund Allenby’s troops in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. But the truth of Desmond’s death is a little less glorious. On the morning of 23 January 1929 Arthur Desmond suffered a stroke in his apartment at 1353 North Clark Street, just a few blocks north of the Newberry Library. He was taken to Cook County Hospital on West Harrison Street where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy was performed by Dr. E. L. Benjamin and found that Desmond had died of a “spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage”. Desmond’s Illinois death certificate definitely establishes the link between the deceased individual and “Ragnar Redbeard”, as the name of deceased is listed as "Arthur Desmond, alias Richard Thurland".
Arthur Desmond’s remains were taken to Shute Funeral Directors at 716 North State Street, Chicago. After embalming, his body was removed to Gary, Indiana where it was presumably laid to rest in an unmarked grave near his estranged wife, Fredericke Desmond, in the Waldheim Cemetery.
Lawyer J. Kendall S. Mitchell was hired to handle Desmond’s estate. Desmond’s bookstore, which was the only tangible asset left behind, included “15,000 miscellaneous second hand books @ 5¢ each $750.00 4,000 miscellaneous second hand books @ 10¢ each $400.00 [total] $1150.00.”
External links
- Might is Right or The Survival of the Fittest (Arthur Desmond's most important literary work written under the nom de plume Ragnar Redbeard) Edited by Darrell W. Conder Published by Dil Pickle Press, 2005