Recently there fell into my lap 80 pages of fascinating correspondence between two of the most influential libertarian intellectuals of our time: the recently-deceased John Hospers, author of Libertarianism: a political philosophy for tomorrow and the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party (in 1972), and Morris Tannehill, the reclusive co-author (with his wife Linda) of the provocative and influential anarcho-libertarian book The Market for Liberty. ((See also Hospers’s biographical entry in Walter Block’s I Chose Liberty; and The Tannehills’ Market for Liberty in ePub and Freedom, Naturally: A Review of Morris and Linda Tannehill’s The Market for Liberty. ))
Nicholas Dykes sent the manuscript to me earlier this year; it contains the mostly typewritten correspondence between Tannehill and Hospers from August 1970 to November 1971. Hospers died earlier this year, and according to Dykes:
I think Morris died years ago in a car crash, but I’m not sure about that. There was an article in Liberty about him and Linda, in the 90s I think. Linda retired to New Mexico and made sandals.
I have not been able to verify this about Tannehill, nor find the article in Liberty–if anyone knows more please add to the comments or email me, and I’ll update this post. [Update: Jesse Walker informs me that the piece Dykes had in mind is probably "Freedom Now," by Linda [formerly Tannehill] Locke, from the March 1991 issue of Liberty.]
Hospers sent this all to Dykes a while back because he liked one of Dykes’s books (Old Nick’s Guide to Happiness), and gave Dykes permission to publish the papers. He considered doing a book but sent them to me, as editor of Libertarian Papers, to handle as I thought fit. I may have the material converted to text and copyedited and published in Libertarian Papers or otherwise at some point, but saw no reason to withhold the raw material. So, here it is. Enjoy!
{ 3 comments }
Tannehill seems like such a cool dude. I love the folksy tone of his letters. The repeated reference to the “coming financial crash” is a refreshing reminder that there were those in tin foil pants who came before us – and they were right.
“and they were right”
Except that they weren’t–read Browne’s book and compare to what happened. As best I recall, Browne predicted not merely a devaluation but a financial collapse as a result thereof, and described how to make money from it. The devaluation happened, the collapse didn’t happen–and he claimed to be a true prophet.
More generally, predicting that something is about to happen and then having something vaguely similar happen forty years later–assuming you are referring not to Browne’s book but to a comment by Tannehill–doesn’t count as being right.
Well, Morris Tannehill was involved in a car accident but he did not die in it. He died from poor health at a later time, while living with a friend of mine in Jackson, Mi. Linda had already moved to New Mexico at that time.
Comments on this entry are closed.