Happy Birthday, Randolph Bourne

Born May 30, 1886, Bloomfield, NJ | Died December 22, 1918, New York

Today, the Best American Essays newsletter celebrates essayist, journalist, and social critic Randolph Silliman Bourne on the 139th anniversary of his birth. A frequent contributor to The Atlantic Monthly, the Dial, and The New Republic, Bourne was vehemently opposed to America’s involvement in World War I. His stance cost him the ability to publish in these periodicals and the funding for The Seven Arts, a literary magazine he helped found. He died from influenza during the 1918-1920 pandemic.

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Randolph Bourne, nd; photographer unknown.

“The sanctity of the State becomes identified with the sanctity of the ruling class, and the latter are permitted to remain in power under the impression that in obeying and serving them, we are obeying and serving society, the nation, the great collectivity of all of us.”

Randolph Bourne, nd.; photographer unknown.

“Do not take the world too seriously, nor let too many social conventions oppress you. Keep sweet your sense of humor, and above all do not let any morbid feelings of inferiority creep into your soul.”

Randolph Bourne, drawing (nd) by Arthur G. Dove, after the Death Mask by James E. Fraser, circa 1918.

First published essay:

“The Handicapped—By One of Them” (published anonymously), The Atlantic, 1911; revised and collected in Youth and Life, 1913.

Select nonfiction bibliography:

• The Letters of Randolph Bourne: A Comprehensive Edition, edited by Eric Whitston Publishing Company, 1981.

• History of a Literary Radical and Other Essays, B. W. Huebsch, 1920.

• The State, unfinished manuscript, 1918.

See also:

Visit the Randolph Bourne archive, where you can read many of his published essays.

Visit the Randolph Bourne archive at Yale University.

Visit the Randolph Bourne Institute.

Read “The Bourne Identity,” Andrew J. Bacovich, The Baffler, 2015.

Read Randolph Bourne and the Politics of Cultural Radicalism, Leslie Vaughan, University Press of Kansas, 1997.

Read The Lyrical Left: Randolph Bourne, Alfred Stieglitz, and the Origins of Cultural Radicalism in America, Edward Abrahams, University Press of Virginia, 1986.

Read Forgotten Prophet: The Life of Randolph Bourne, Bruce Clayton, Louisiana State University Press, 1984.