Libertarian Autobiographies

There are three collections I’m aware of, of people notable enough for inclusion in such but not major enough figures to warrant their own biographies (e.g. Rothbard, Mises).

• Marc Guttman, ed., Why Liberty: Personal Journeys Toward Peace and Freedom (Cobden Press, 2010; Amazon; website). Out of print and dead links online. Typical of half-assed libertarians. Demonstrates the perils of copyright paywalls and not providing open versions. (See On Leading by Example and the Power of Attraction (Open Source Publishing, Creative Commons, Public Domain Publishing).)
• Walter Block, ed. I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians (Mises Institute, 2010). The only one online (my entry is in this one, “How I Became A Libertarian“). ¹ Thanks Jeffrey Tucker and the Mises Institute’s once-great open publishing policy. ² (After Tucker and Doug French left Mises in 2011 or so, the Mises Institute has has unfortunately switched from CC-BY to the useless and restrictive CC-NC-ND, which is worse than nothing.) See what open publishing does? It preserves knowledge.
• Jo Ann Cavallo and Walter E. Block, eds., Libertarian Autobiographies: Moving Toward Freedom in Today’s World (Palgrave Mcmillan, 2023). Also brutally and sadly and retardedly paywalled by the copyright-fascist publishing industry. See The Academic Publishing Paywall Copyright Subsidized Racket. OH WELL—guess it’s not that important!

1. Kinsella, “How I Became A Libertarian,” LewRockwell.com (Dec. 18, 2002), also in Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023); see also Alan D. Bergman, Adopting Liberty: The Stephan Kinsella Story (Papinian Press, 2025). [↩]
2. The Academic Publishing Paywall Copyright Subsidized Racket;  Tucker, The Magic of Open-Source Publishing; Kulldorff, The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward; Authors: Don’t Make the Buddy Holly Mistake; Academic publishers have become the enemies of science: yet more real piracy; Authors: Beware of Copyright,” in Bourbon for Breakfast (Mises Institute, 2010). [↩]