Much like a reliable news source, it can be near impossible these days to find an artist who is pro-liberty. If you value freedom, the current state of things can often bring you down. From doom-and-gloom headlines to the far-reaching effects of cancel culture, individuals who still believe in liberty and autonomy may go about their days feeling more and more hopeless. While it’s important to continue our search for truth no matter the consequences, equally as important as the search for truth is the celebration of writers who champion truth through their works.
While liberty-minded artists seem few and far between these days, there’s a long history of poets and writers who dare to challenge the status quo, go against their fellow artists, and create art in honor of principles instead of politics. Here are just a few freedom-loving artists who will leave you inspired, refreshed, and reinvigorated to stand firm in the face of tyranny and deny its power.
Victor Hugo
French novelist and poet Victor Hugo lived through a time of great unrest in France during the 1800s. From the monarchist rule of Napoleon III and the revolutions of 1848 to the attempted establishment of yet another republican form of government in the country, Hugo often used his works to comment on the political state of society.
He was an abolitionist, advocate of self-governance, and was an outspoken critic of capital punishment. He was also a pioneer of the literary romantic movement which placed man in a heroic light, something that wasn’t too popular among artists at the time (and sadly still isn’t).
Though he’s most well known for his works like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables, perhaps one of his last published poems embodies his love of freedom and his love of man the best.
Ultima Verba, or ‘My Last Word,’ is a passionate commentary on his many years spent in exile with his family due to his criticisms of the French monarchy, and a declaration of his undying commitment to freedom.
And if the hundred should dwindle to ten
Who are willing their country still to defend,
And would their lives give her misery to end,
I will be found among those ten men.
And should fate this honor to one man decree,
That he should alone remain to fulfill
His duty with faith and a sovereign will,
Know it now, tyrant, the last I will be.
Some of literature’s most beloved (and controversial) writers would go on to be heavily influenced by Hugo’s work. Just a few of those writers include Charles Dickens, Albert Camus, and Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Ayn Rand’s personal favorite of Hugo’s was Ninety- Three and she provided the introduction for one of the editions.
Henry David Thoreau
I’m often asked by people discovering the roots of Voluntaryist philosophy who they should read first. While I often rattle off important names like Auberon Herbert and Ludwig von Mises, I usually point them to American author Henry David Thoreau as well.
A philosopher who was one of the leading figures of the Transcendentalist movement along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was an unapologetic advocate of individualism and self-reliance.
An early work on what could now be described as “pro-nullification” in the wheelhouse of Lysander Spooner, Henry David Thoreau’s highly-readable Civil Disobedience implores people to question government and defy rules that go against the natural rights of every individual.
“If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.”
Civil Disobedience advises readers to choose conscience over committee and find peaceful ways to oppose policies that eat away at individual rights. Thoreau originally titled the essay ‘Resistance to Civil Government.’ He became inspired to write it while spending time in jail due to failure to pay taxes which funded both slavery and the Mexican-American War he was opposed to.
William E. Henley
Though the Victorian Era represents significant growth of an industrialized civilization, back-breaking work and the dirty, experimental conditions of the medical community required man to have an almost superhuman tolerance of pain.
William Henley was a tall, muscular force of nature despite only having one leg. At the tender age of 12 he had to have one of his legs amputated due to complications from tuberculosis. His impressive agility sporting a wooden leg inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to create the character Long John Silver who he featured in his book Treasure Island, one of America’s favorite pirate tales.
When he was close to losing his other leg he sought treatment from Joseph Lister, the father of preventative medicine (and the inspiration behind the popular antiseptic mouthwash, Listerine).
Lister was able to save his leg but it wasn’t without a long, grueling hospital stay on Henley’s part that spanned three years.
While recovering he wrote Invictus, a poem that will inspire anyone to get up and do battle with adversity one more time.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
When you are feeling overwhelmed by this crazy world, take a moment and read Henley’s Invictus and reignite that tiny spark of hope within you that must continue to burn if we want to keep the flame of liberty alive.
Joseph Massey
New England’s Joseph Massey might be a contemporary poet, but when you get lost in the lines of his stanzas you feel like you are being transported back in time to a Walt-Whitman-style cabin, free to roam the woods and dream while looking for answers in the horizon.
These days it can be hard to find a poem worth fighting for but Massey’s collections are full of them.
Despite mob-like attempts to “cancel” him because he’s a rare poet who prefers to stand on his own two feet, he’s focused his artistic endeavors even more fervently these days. He started his own publishing company, The Exile Press, and released his latest collection, Rosary Made of Air, in 2022.
You can also subscribe to his publication Dispatches From the Basement, where he releases poems, photography work, and updates on a regular basis.
“you know the poem’s
a window
breaking into light”
Being a poet takes guts. That’s why there’s so few of them out there anymore.
Massey is the exception to this reality.
This article began as a simple cataloging of artists I come across who inspire me to continue fighting for artistic integrity and freedom when I get a bit tired of duking it out, so to speak. I plan to release more articles highlighting liberty-loving creatives but I hope you enjoyed this first installment.
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Peace, Love, and Liberty.
-Rebecca-