No Regrets Dr. Ben Reitman and the Women Who Loved Him

The story of the legendary Ben Reitman, told by a daughter who dared explore her family's hidden past, searching in letters and family records for the secrets of her long-dead father, and the women (most famously, of course, Emma Goldman) who loved him. "The irrepressible, irresponsible, irresistible and impossible Dr. Ben L. Reitman leaps off these wonderful pages as an American original. With humor, honesty, and grace, Mecca Reitman Carpenter has mapped the amazing life of a father she barely knew, drawing skillfully on his long-buried intimate correspondence with many female lovers including her own mother. Here is a courageous and engaging portrait, not only of an unforgettable Chicago character, but of the messiness and inventiveness of love." - Alice Wexler, author of Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life "Ben Reitman's life was larger than life. It entwined down and out history, magisterial tramping, epochal labor battlings, hobo lore, jail birding, medical pioneering, occasional Bible thumping and free love." - Studs Terkel "The public Reitman—brash and swaggering, the private Reitman—unsure, at times tormented—it was all there for scrutiny. With passion, dedication and a detective's eye, Mecca Carpenter has confronted her own past and that of her father. I enjoyed the book immensely." Roger Bruns, author of The Damnedest Radical "What strikes me most forcibly about No Regrets is its utter honesty. That she could see her father so clearly, and recall his flaws so unabashedly (as he did himself) and yet come to love him—perhaps even to love him more because of his complexity—is quite extraordinary. I enjoyed the book thoroughly." Howard Zinn