Kirkpatrick Sale facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kirkpatrick Sale
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Sale in 1988
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| Born | June 27, 1937 Ithaca, New York, U.S.
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| Education | Cornell University (BA) |
| Occupation | Author |
| Spouse(s) |
Faith Apfelbaum
(m. 1958; died 1999) |
Kirkpatrick Sale (born June 27, 1937) is an American author. He writes a lot about ideas like decentralism (having power spread out, not in one central place), protecting the environment, and Luddism (being against new technology). People have called him a "leader of the Neo-Luddites," which means he questions how much we should rely on technology. He is also known for his ideas on secession, which is when a part of a country tries to become independent.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Kirkpatrick Sale grew up in Ithaca, New York. He said that living there for his first twenty years really shaped his ideas and beliefs. His brother, Roger Sale, was a professor who studied literature.
Sale went to Cornell University. He studied English and history and graduated in 1958. While at Cornell, he was the editor of the student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun.
In 1958, Sale helped lead a student protest. They were protesting university rules that limited how male and female students could spend time together. These rules were part of the university's "in loco parentis" policy, meaning the university acted like a parent. Sale and his roommate, Richard Fariña, were among those charged by the university for their part in the protest. This protest was even mentioned in Fariña's novel, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.
Career as a Writer
Sale started his career in journalism. He worked for a magazine called New Leader, which was started by socialists. He also wrote for The New York Times Magazine. Later, he became a freelance journalist, meaning he worked for himself.
His first book was about his time in Ghana. His second book, SDS, was about a student group from the 1960s called Students for a Democratic Society. This book is still seen as an important source about that group.
In 1968, Sale joined a protest against the Vietnam War. He signed a pledge saying he would refuse to pay taxes because of the war. His later books explored ideas like decentralism (spreading out power), bioregionalism (living in harmony with your local natural area), and environmentalism. He also wrote about the Luddites, a group from history who protested against new machines.
Sale has often written for progressive magazines like Mother Jones and The Nation. He has given many of his writings and letters to the archives at Cornell University, where people can study them. In 2020, Sale moved to a different village near Ithaca.
Sale's Views
Kirkpatrick Sale has strong opinions on history, technology, and how governments should be organized.
Looking at History
In his 1990 book, The Conquest of Paradise, Sale wrote about Christopher Columbus. He argued that Columbus was focused on taking over lands from his very first trip. A historian named William Hardy McNeill reviewed the book for The New York Times. McNeill said Sale tried to show Columbus as cruel, greedy, and not very good at sailing.
However, McNeill also felt that Sale's book was "unhistorical." This means he thought Sale picked out facts that fit his modern-day ideas about Columbus. McNeill believed that both those who praised Columbus and those who criticized him often made him seem too simple, either as a hero or a villain.
Thoughts on Technology
Sale has written a lot about technology and is often doubtful about its benefits. He has even called personal computers "the devil's work." Sometimes, when he gave talks, he would even smash a computer to make his point.
In 1995, Sale had a public debate with Steven Levy, a technology writer for Newsweek magazine. They discussed the good and bad sides of the "communications age."
Sale knows a lot about old American songs from the 1910s to the 1960s. He was also involved in the folk music scene in the 1960s with famous musicians like Peter Yarrow and Pete Seeger. However, he doesn't like pop music from after that time. He once heard Bob Dylan play in the 1960s and thought it was "awful."
In 1995, Sale made a public bet with Kevin Kelly, another writer. Sale predicted that by 2020, three big problems would happen: a global money collapse, major wars between rich and poor, and serious environmental disasters. A judge later decided that Kelly won the bet, meaning Sale's predictions did not come true. Sale, however, did not agree with the judge's decision and did not pay the $1000 he had agreed to.
Supporting Secession
Sale is seen as an important thinker behind the idea of secession. Secession is when a region or state tries to break away and form its own independent country. He believes that a big trend in history is for large empires to break up into smaller nations. He argues that smaller governments often make smaller mistakes.
In 2004, Sale helped create the Middlebury Institute. This group studies separatism, secession, and self-determination. Sale is the director of this institute. In 2006, the Middlebury Institute hosted the First North American Secessionist Convention. This was the first time many secessionist groups had gathered since the American Civil War. They created a statement of their beliefs called the Burlington Declaration.
In 2007, The New York Times interviewed Sale about the Second North American Secessionist Convention. Sale explained, "If you want to leave a nation you think is corrupt, inefficient, militaristic, oppressive... what do you do? Well, the way is through secession."
One of the groups that helped organize the convention, the League of the South, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Sale said that while there might be some racists in the League of the South, they are everywhere.
Sale also wrote the introduction for Thomas Naylor's 2008 book, Secession: How Vermont and all the Other States Can Save Themselves from the Empire.
Personal Life
After graduating from Cornell University in 1958, Kirkpatrick Sale married Faith Apfelbaum. Faith worked as an editor for famous authors like Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut. Faith passed away in 1999. In 2019, Sale married his long-time partner, Shirley Branchini, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Books Written by Sale
- The Land and People of Ghana. Lippincott (1963)
- SDS: Ten Years Toward a Revolution. New York: Random House (1973). ISBN: 0394478894.
- Power Shift: The Rise of the Southern Rim and Its Challenge to the Eastern Establishment. New York: Random House (1975).
- Human Scale. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan (1980). ISBN: 0698110137.
- Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision. San Francisco, Calif.: Sierra Club Books (1985). ISBN: 0871568470.
- Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy. New York: Knopf (1990).
- Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 1962-1992. New York: Hill and Wang (1993). ISBN: 978-0809052189.
- Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution: Lessons for the Computer Age. Boston, Mas.: Addison Wesley (1995). ISBN: 0201626780.
- Why the Sea Is Salt: Poems of Love and Loss. San Jose, Calif.: Writers Club Press (2001). ISBN: 978-0595176403.
- Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream. Los Angeles, Calif.: Free Press (2001). ISBN: 978-0684867151.
- After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination. Duke University Press (2006). ISBN: 978-0822339380.
- Emancipation Hell: The Tragedy Wrought by the Emancipation Proclamation 150 Years Ago. Sale (2012). ISBN: 978-1480285224.
- Human Scale Revisited. Chelsea Green (2017).
- Collapse of 2020. Outskirts Press (2020).
- No More Mushrooms: Thoughts on Life Without Government. Autonomedia (2021).
Book Contributions
- "Self-Sufficiency." In: Buying America Back, edited by Jonathan Greenberg and William Kistler. Tulsa, Okla.: Council Oak Books (1992), pp. 555-567.
Images for kids
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Kirkpatrick Sale in 1988
