{{short description|Writer and anarchist (1878–1956)}} {{Use American English|date=July 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Stephen Naft | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date text|1878}} | birth_place = Vienna, Austria | death_date = {{death date and given age|1956|12|12|78}} | death_place = Flushing, New York, United States | known_for = | occupation = | relatives = Max Nomad (brother) }}
'''Stephen Naft''' (born '''Siegfried Nacht'''; 1878–1956), also known by the pseudonym '''Arnold Roller''', was a writer, translator, and anarcho-syndicalist.
== Life == Siegfried Nacht was born in 1878 in Vienna. He worked as an electrical engineer in cities across Europe, where he also spoke and wrote on behalf of syndicalism. Nacht traveled by foot through the Alps and Pyrenees, Spain and North Africa to spread his politics.{{r|obit}} He wrote for the anarchist press beginning in 1901, usually under the pen name Arnold Roller.{{r|LOC}} Nacht published his "The General Strike and the Social Revolution" pamphlet in London in 1902.{{r|obit}} Switzerland expelled him in August 1905. He entered Tyrol, Austria.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jensen |first1=Richard Bach |title=The Battle Against Anarchist Terrorism: An International History, 1878–1934 |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-107-03405-1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |df=mdy-all |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MuVRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA330 330] }}</ref>
He emigrated to the United States in 1912<!-- 1913? {{r|obit}} -->, where he changed his name to Stephen Naft. He naturalized in 1920.<ref name=LOC>{{Cite web |title=Naft, Stephen, 1878-1956 |publisher=Library of Congress |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no95003806.html |language=en |access-date=2022-07-17 |df=mdy-all |archive-date=July 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717214516/https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no95003806.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Being conversant in six languages, Naft led ''The American Exporter''{{'s}} translation bureau for ten years and served as a technical editor. Afterwards, he worked for other foreign-language news organizations in the United States and Latin America. He was an editor for the French Havas news agency in 1934–1935. During World War II, he served as a local research coordinator in the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.{{r|obit}} Though he grew less political,{{r|obit}} he continued to promote anarcho-syndicalism, edited ''Living Age'', and founded the Freedom Publishing Company in New York.<ref name=Cazden>{{Cite book |last1=Cazden |first1=Robert Edgar |chapter=Freedom Publishing Co. New York |title=German Exile Literature in America, 1933-1950: A History of the Free German Press and Book Trade |page=[https://archive.org/details/germanexileliter0000cazd/page/197/mode/1up 197] |date=1970 |language=en |isbn=978-0-8389-3098-4 |publisher=American Library Association |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
Nacht died on December 12, 1956, in a Flushing nursing home. He had been blind for the last few years of his life. His wife, Mabel Wood Naft, survived him, as did his brother,{{r|obit}} Max Nomad, who was more prominently known in the United States.{{r|Cazden}}
== References == <references>
<ref name=obit>{{Cite news |title=Stephen Naft Dies; Political Writer, 78 |work=The New York Times |date=1956-12-13 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/12/13/archives/stephen-naft-dies-political-writer-78.html |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |df=mdy-all |access-date=July 17, 2022 |archive-date=July 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717214514/https://www.nytimes.com/1956/12/13/archives/stephen-naft-dies-political-writer-78.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
</references>
== Further reading == {{refbegin}} * {{Cite book |last1=Bartov |first1=Omer |title=Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz |date=2018 |language=en |isbn=978-1-4516-8455-1 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |df=mdy-all }} * {{Cite book |last1=Cohn |first1=Jesse |title=Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848–2011 |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-84935-201-7 |publisher=AK Press |df=mdy-all |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=JBAwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT76 76 ] }} * {{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Enckell |first1=Marianne |author-link=Marianne Enckell |title=NACHT Siegfried [puis NAFT Stephen; pseudonyme ROLLER Arnold] |date=2020-06-06 |url=https://maitron.fr/spip.php?article155934 |language=fr |publisher=Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier |encyclopedia=Dictionnaire des anarchistes |location=Paris |df=mdy-all |access-date=July 17, 2022 |archive-date=July 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717205332/https://maitron.fr/spip.php?article155934 |url-status=live }} * {{Cite book |last1=Fishman |first1=William J. |author-link=William J. Fishman |title=Jewish Radicals: From Czarist Stetl to London Ghetto |date=1975 |url=http://archive.org/details/jewishradicalsfr0000fish |language=en |isbn=978-0-394-49764-8 |publisher=Pantheon Books |location=New York |df=mdy-all |page=[https://archive.org/details/jewishradicalsfr0000fish/page/269/mode/1up 269] }} * {{Cite book |last1=Lattek |first1=Christine |title=Revolutionary Refugees: German Socialism in Britain, 1840-1860 |date=2006 |language=en |isbn=978-0-7146-5100-2 |publisher=Psychology Press |df=mdy-all |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=u7HSJ90M2isC&pg=PA229&dq=%22arnold+roller%22+%22siegfried%22 229] }} * {{Cite book |last1=Portmann |first1=Werner |title=Die wilden Schafe: Max und Siegfried Nacht; zwei radikale, jüdische Existenzen |date=2008 |language=de |isbn=978-3-89771-455-7 |publisher=Unrast-Verl |location=Münster |df=mdy-all }} {{refend}} <!-- == External links == * {{Official website}} --> {{authority control}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Naft, Stephen}} Category:1878 births Category:1956 deaths Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century anarchists Category:American anarchist writers Category:American editors Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Anarchists from Austria-Hungary Category:Anarcho-syndicalists Category:Austrian anarchists Category:Austrian electrical engineers Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States Category:Engineers from Austria-Hungary Category:Writers from Vienna Category:American translators