Pederasty and Anarchist Individualism in the Work of John Henry Mackay

John Henry Mackay has two profiles in German intellectual life at the beginning of the twentieth century. Known primarily as the biographer and advocate of anarchist philosopher Max Stirner, he led a second, less-well-known existence as Sagitta, author of novels, poems and manifestos in the emerging environment of homosexual liberation in the early years of the century. In this article the two aspects of Mackay’s thinking and writing are considered in relation to each other. This analysis reveals the extent to which his novels from the early years of the century tested and advocated the anarchic individualism of his philosophical guiding star, Stirner in the process of contributing to a critical yet self-redemptive view of the ageing pederast. The literary outcome, particularly the early novel, Fenny Skaller, looks forward to issues of social condemnation and responsibility to self raised in the later Existentialist novel.