Ernest Howard Crosby
Ernest Howard Crosby was an influential author and social reformer born in New York City, known for his strong antimilitarist stance and dedication to various humanitarian causes. Initially pursuing a conventional career in law and politics, he served in the New York state legislature and was appointed a judge of the International Court in Alexandria, Egypt, before a profound encounter with Leo Tolstoy's writings redirected his path toward radical social reform. Crosby's philosophy emphasized a non-violent approach to anarchism and critiqued dogmatic socialism, advocating for love and kindness as guiding principles.
He was actively involved in numerous civic initiatives, including the Social Reform Club and the New York Vegetarian Society, and wrote extensively on topics such as industrial arbitration and prison reform. Crosby's literary contributions included poetry and satirical works, with his notable novel, *Captain Jinks, Hero*, serving as a critique of American militarism during the Spanish-American War. He continued to promote Tolstoy's ideas through his writings and maintained a belief in freedom, equality, and justice over brute force. Crosby passed away at the age of fifty in Baltimore, leaving behind a legacy of reformative thought and literary expression.
Ernest Howard Crosby
- Ernest Howard Crosby
- Born: November 4, 1856
- Died: January 3, 1907
Author and antimilitarist social reformer, was born in New York City, the son of the Rev. Howard Crosby, noted minister and classicist, and Margaret (Givan) Crosby. The family was wealthy and took an interest in social and civic issues.
Crosby entered at first on a conventional and successful career. After graduating from New York University in 1876, he attended Columbia Law School and was admitted to the bar in New York. He was married in 1881 to Fanny Schieffelin, with whom he had a son and a daughter. They maintained two homes, a Fifth Avenue mansion and an estate in Rhinebeck, New York.
Crosby was a friend and associate of the young Theodore Roosevelt, and in 1887 he was elected to the New York state legislature at Albany as Roosevelt’s successor. He served until 1889, when he was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as a judge of the International Court, which then sat in Alexandria, Egypt.
In 1894 Crosby picked up Leo Tolstoy’s short volume Life, a powerful statement of Tolstoy’s moral and political convictions. The effect on Crosby was dramatic. Convinced that radical social reform was necessary, he resigned his position on the International Court and traveled back to the United States, stopping on the way to visit Tolstoy.
On Tolstoy’s advice Crosby sought out Henry George, the social reformer and single-tax advocate. His own interests ranged through a wide variety of anti-imperialist, settlement-house, and other humanitarian and civic causes in New York City. Much in the manner of Tolstoy, he developed a highly independent philosophy by which he evaluated social and political programs and personalities; he wrote critically of socialism because of its dogmatism and became increasingly friendly toward what he envisaged as “an anarchism not of violence but of loving kindness.” He served as chairman of the New York Committee of Friends of Russian Freedom; was one of the founders (1894) and the first president, of the Social Reform Club; and was at one point president of the New York Vegetarian Society. Between 1895 and 1907 he worked and wrote in the causes of antimilitarism, industrial arbitration, vegetarianism, settlement work, and prison reform. In the presidential election of 1904 Crosby supported the Democrat Alton B. Parker against his former friend Theodore Roosevelt, of whom he wrote: “His idea of National greatness means nothing but physical strength and for great ideas he would substitute a big navy. Freedom, equality, justice must all be subordinated to brute force.”
Crosby was a prolific writer and was coeditor with Benedict Prieth of the journal Whim. He was the author of four volumes of poetry in the free-verse style of Walt Whitman: Plain Talk in Psalm and Parable (1899); Swords and Plowshares (1902); Broad-Cast (1905); and The Soul of the World and Other Poems (1908). He continued to be active in popularizing Tolstoy’s ideas, notably in Tolstoy and the Masses (1903), and Tolstoy as a School-Master (1904). In Shakespeare’s Attitude Toward the Working Classes (1902) he originated the argument that Shakespeare is unsympathetic to the poor; Tolstoy wrote his controversial essay on King Lear in response.
Crosby’s most notable work was a satirical novel, Captain Jinks, Hero (1902). Written as a direct response to America’s involvement in the Spanish-American War, it describes the rise and fall of a war hero whose “inherently respectful nature” is distorted by militarism and who ends up in an insane asylum, playing with toy armies: “When they say I’m a lunatic they mean I’m a perfect soldier. I tell you an army of lead soldiers with a lunatic at the head would be the best army in the world. We do what we’re told, and we’re not afraid of anything.”
Crosby died at the age of fifty in Baltimore after an attack of pneumonia.
In addition to the works already noted, Crosby wrote Edward Carpenter: Poet and Prophet (1901); William Lloyd Garrison, Non-Resistant and Abolitionist (1905); and Golden Rule Jones, Mayor of Toledo (1906). Biographical sources include the Dictionary of American Biography (1930); L. A. Abbott, Ernest Howard Crosby: A Valuation and a Tribute (1907); L. Filler, A Dictionary of American Social Reform (1963). A New York Times obituary appeared on January 4, 1907.