Ammon Hennacy: A Brief Biography
by Joan Thomas
This biography of Ammon Hennacy by Joan Thomas, his widow, appears on the cover of The Book of Ammon (Fortkamp/Rose Hill, 1994) and is reproduced with permission from the publisher. The photo of Ammon Hennacy appears courtesy of Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah.
Ammon Hennacy was born July 24, 1893 in Negley, Ohio. His formal education consisted of one year each at three institutions: 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, D.C. (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 the 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.
Bibliography:
Coy, Patrick G. "The One-Person Revolution of Ammon Hennacy" in Revolution of the Heart: Essays on the Catholic Worker, edited by Patrick G. Coy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, c.1988.
Hennacy, Ammon. Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist. New York, Catholic Worker Books, 1954. 314p.
Hennacy, Ammon. The Book of Ammon. Baltimore, MD, Fortkamp Publishing Co., 1994. 510p.
Hennacy, Ammon. The One-Man Revolution. Salt Lake City: Ammon Hennacy Publications, 1970.
Thomas, Joan. The Years of Grief and Laughter: A "Biography" of Ammon Hennacy. Baltimore, MD, Fortkamp Publishing Co., 1993 c.1974, 342p.
Other Web Resources on Ammon Hennacy: