Emma Goldman

"Arresting . . . Gornick sees Goldman's lifelong commitment to anarchism as doing 'what Tolstoy said a work of art should do: It made people love life more'; this generous book does the same."—New Yorker ~New Yorker

"[An] elegant portrait."—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books

~Russell Baker, New York Review of Books

"An intense, engrossing essay written with an allusive, sinuous style."—Fred Siegel, Wall Street Journal

~Fred Siegel, Wall Street Journal

Finalist for the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in the Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir category, as given by the Jewish Book Council.

~National Jewish Book Award, Jewish Book Council

Honorable Mention in the Biography/Autobiography category at the Los Angeles Book Festival.

~Biography/Autobiography Honorable Mention, Los Angeles Book Festival

Won Honorable Mention for the 2011-2012 Los Angeles Book Festival in the Biography/Autobiography category

~Biography/Autobiography Honorable Mention, Los Angeles Book Festival

Finalist for the 2012 Book of the Year in the Biography category, as awarded by ForeWord Magazine.

~Book of the Year Bronze Winner, ForeWord Magazine

“Vivian Gornick has a gripping new entry in Yale’s Jewish Lives series...She has breathed new life into one of the liveliest figures of modern history—not a rebel without a cause but a rebel with many causes.”—David Shribman, Boston Globe

~David Shribman, Boston Globe

"Vivian Gornick brings Emma Goldman to life, evokes her spirit in all its ambition and anguish, and explains why today's reader should care about her rebelliousness and audacity. Gornick makes clear that, ideology aside, Goldman's will to take her life in her hands, her striving to reconcile the stirrings of the personal soul with the social imperative, are an inspiration."—Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage ~Todd Gitlin

“Gornick’s portrayal of Goldman captures Goldman’s psychological makeup in a profound, empathetic, and eloquent way.”—Alice Wexler, author of Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life

~Alice Wexler

"A vivid snapshot of Gilded Age liberal activism.... Gornick lucidly presents her subject’s significance within a fascinating historical moment."—Kirkus Reviews

~Kirkus Reviews

"With wit and insight, Gornick urges readers to feel what Goldman felt, to ponder what made her kick against conditions that her contemporaries meekly accepted, and to ask whether things are so different today."—Publishers Weekly

~Publishers Weekly

"A ferocious, high-strung and enlightening biography . . . This slender volume, out from Yale University Press as part of their Jewish Lives series, can now be counted among the indispensable guides to Goldman's life."—Virginia Hefferman, Moment

~Virginia Hefferman, Moment

"Gornick offers a surprisingly nuanced account of Goldman's political dilemmas . . . What's truly haunting is the way Gornick shows us a woman ahead of her times—maybe even ahead of our times."—Bettina Berch, Jewish Book Council

~Bettina Berch, Jewish Book Council

"[T]his compact biography packs a lot of punch for its size."—Judy Maltz, Haaretz

~Judy Maltz, Haaretz

"[L]ean and searching . . . Gornick’s subdued prose is a welcome foil to what she rightly calls Goldman’s “high-flown rhetoric,” and her biography is a fine primer into 'the despair and the excitement of revolt'—for the budding anarchist, the seasoned activist, and the armchair occupier alike."—Anne Gray Fischer, Ploughshares

~Anne Gray Fischer, Ploughshares

Finalist for the 2011 National Jewish Book Awards in the Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir category, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council

~National Jewish Book Awards Finalist, Jewish Book Council