As a bibliophile who publishes books on egoism and is editor-in-chief of UnionOfEgoists.com, it should be apparent I look for and have an interest in new egoist books/booklets/etc.
It was on ebay I came across the small anarchist project LCU Distro and specifically their book SAUERKRAUT for the EGO: Stirner’s Critics and Other Egoist Essays. LCU Distro focuses on anarchism, communism and LGBT interests, and their wares are available from their blog, ebay and facebook.
LCU appears to be printing and binding all “in-house” and while it’s apparent the publisher is still learning their craft, I give them credit for their effort and, at $5 shipped, a reasonable person can hardly complain that their when their book is clearly a DIY labor of love. While I’m not sure if it is an intentional design decision, the type on the spine reads bottom to top, the direction found on the spines of German books…. thematically appropriate, given the title! I was quite surprised at the typesetting, it was done better than many small anarchist presses, with properly running folio, nice looking footnotes and it has decent margins.
As for the content, the book is a compilation of one historical and then mostly modern work reflecting an egoist worldview with heavy emphasis on those who like to mix communism with egoism. While all of the works are online (and source cited in the book!), buying the book allows the editor to convey their own cause, and I can take what I like from it and disregard what I do not like. In fact, one can just put out their OWN compilation, as I did in 2012. Because the gathered material is mostly online, and most of it is outside the century that UoE focuses on (1845-1945), I will not further dwell on the content itself. I will say that if the themes appeal to you, and you don’t have a copy of Stirner’s Critics, picking up a copy of SAUERKRAUT for the EGO: Stirner’s Critics and Other Egoist Essays for a mere $5 seems like an easy decision.
The table of contents on the ebay listing wasn’t complete, so I have provided an amended one below:
- Stirner’s Critics
- Nameless: An Egoist Critique of Identity
- The Unique One meets the Overman
- Nameless, An Egoist Critique of Identity
- Some Thoughts on the Creative Nothing
- The Relevance of Max Stirner to Anarcho-Communists
- Egoist-Communism: What It Is and What It Isn’t
- I Want Friends, Not Community / My Comrades
- Nice Shit for Everybody
- No One Is Coming to Save You, Comrade
- Starting Your Own War To Get Free
- Illegalism: Why Pay for a Revolution on the Installment Plan…When You Can Steal One?
