Ammon Hennacy was born July 24, 1893 in Negley, Ohio. His formal education consisted of one year each at three Hiram College in Ohio (1913), University of Wisconsin (1914), and Ohio State University (1915). With the outbreak of World War I he refused to register for military service and consequently served two years in the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1919 he married (common law). In 1921 he and his wife hiked throughout the forty-eight contiguous states. Between 1925-1929 he purchased a farm and became the father of two children. In 1931 he engaged in social work in Milwaukee. There he organized one of the first social workers' unions. With the coming of World War II he again refused to register for the draft. Between 1942 and 1953 he worked as a migrant laborer in the Southwest. He became baptized into the Roman Catholic Church in 1952 by an anarchist priest. Between 1953 and 1961 he was an associate editor of the Catholic Worker, located in the Bowery area of New York City. His picketing activities included annual air raid drill protests in New York City between 1955 and 1961. He also expressed protest against war preparation by picketing the Atomic Energy Commission at Las Vegas (1957), Cape Kennedy (1958), Washington, DC (1958), and Mead Field in Omaha (1959). In 1961 he organized and directed the Joe Hill House of Hospitality in remembrance of the martyrdom of Joe Hill. While in Utah he was involved in picketing and fasting protests against scheduled executions of condemned prisoners at the State Prison, fasting on various occasions for periods ranging from 12 to 45 consecutive days. In 1965 he married Joan Thomas, and formally left the Catholic Church. From that time on he wished to be known as a non-church Christian. In 1968 he was forced to close his fourth Joe Hill House, and from then on he devoted himself to his writing. At the same time, he continued to picket and fast against scheduled executions and payment of taxes for war. Shortly after the publication of his book, The One-Man Revolution in America, he suffered a heart attack while picketing for Lance and Kelback, two convicted murderers scheduled to be executed. He died six days later, on January 14, 1970. Joan Thomas, widow of Ammon Hennacy

Autobiography of a Catholic anarchist

Hennacy, Ammon, 1893-1970

Baltimore: Fortkamp Pub. Co.

United States, United States of America

2nd ed, Baltimore, 1994

2nd Edition, PS, 1994

Revision and expansion of his Autobiography of a Catholic anarchist.
Includes bibliographies.

491 pages : 23 cm
"Introduction by Steve Allen. Forward by Dorothy Day."
Previously published under title: Autobiography of a Catholic anarchist
Childhood : youth -- Anti-war agitation -- Marriage : travel in 48 states -- Social work -- Life at hard labor : refusal to pay income tax -- Life at hard labor : the Hopi -- Fasting in protest -- Working, fasting, picketing : Hopiland -- Working, fasting, picketing : Maryfarm -- Traveling -- I become a Catholic -- Jails and picketing -- Catholic Worker -- From Wall Street -- In the marketplace -- Communities in the U.S. and Canada -- Book reviews -- Questions and answers -- The Joe Hill House -- I leave the Catholic Church -- The price of courage / by Joan Thomas

Reprint of 1970 5th edition

2023-06-28