Desmond is believed to be the author of the 1896 political treatise, Might Is Right, written under the pen name Ragnar Redbeard and printed in Chicago.
George G. Reeve continues: "Arthur Desmond, for that was the real name of 'Ragnar Redbeard', was a native of Hawkes Bay [sic], New Zealand, where he was born about the year 1842 of Irish ancestry.
"[2] New Zealand National Dictionary biographer Rachel Barrowman adds: "Arthur Desmond was unknown to the electors of Hawke's Bay when he stood for Parliament in 1884.
You have allowed great squatters of the worst type to rule you to their own advantage; they have themselves grabbed the good land, and they attempt to pose as your friends by offering you the crumbs that fall from their table.
As Sir George was a staunch defender of the Māori, Desmond also took up their cause, a move that was controversial[citation needed] in the New Zealand of his day.
[12][13] When he publicly denounced bank directors as "scoundrels," estate owners as "blood-sucking leeches," and the local press as "hirelings of monopoly," Desmond was essentially standing on a socialist platform.
[14] Following his election loss, Desmond left the area to find work in the timber mills of Poverty Bay and on the farms of the Waikato.
For Arthur Desmond, Te Kooti's action was disastrous since he found himself in the untenable position of supporting the chief against New Zealand's European population over an issue that had been a major plank in his parliamentary platform— the Crown's right of preemption.
In Poverty Bay, at a packed schoolhouse in Makaraka, Desmond faced a meeting of some five hundred angry settlers on Te Kooti's behalf.
Amidst talk of armed resistance and bloodshed, Desmond explained to his brethren that he knew many of the chief's supporters and that the Māori meant them no harm.
When he let it slip that he had been in contact with the Māori leaders and went on to forcefully threaten that the settlers had no legal or moral right to interfere with Te Kooti's visit, fights erupted.
In the New Zealand Herald Desmond was called the "pakeha [white] emissary from the Hau Haus" and was reported lucky to have left the meeting alive.
[dubious – discuss] In 1890 Desmond submitted an essay to the magazine Zealandia which was published in the June issue with the title of "Christ as a Social Reformer.
The Zealandia article was so well received that Desmond decided to publish it as a booklet and, as added prestige, used one of Sir George Grey's personal letters as a preface.
While openly writing against the government and big business, in 1890 Arthur Desmond produced twenty-five typewritten copies of what he would later designate[clarification needed] as the first edition of Might Is Right.
Using the pseudonym "Redbeard" ("Ragnar" would be added to the name five years later), this first edition filled only 16 small pages and was titled Might Is Right Logic of To-Day.
Desmond collaborated with Hughes on a political broadsheet which evolved into a radical periodical titled The New Order, and he became part of the circle surrounding McNamara's Bookshop[24] at 221 Castlereagh Street (demolished in 1922), associating with Louisa Lawson and her son Henry, Jack Lang, Tommy Walker, and future Prime Minister Alfred Deakin.
[25] On 11 June 1893, appeared the first issue of Hard Cash, a seditious[citation needed] and provocative periodical instigated by Desmond and Lang.
Desmond explains that supporting weakness is unnatural and dangerous for species survival; competition, strength, and dominance being prime natural values.
(Of Arthur Desmond, Prime Minister Billy Hughes recalled "His command of scarifying language was appalling.... Poetry oozed out of him at every pore.
For the Citizen — Emancipation from Poverty Conditions, Competitive Commercialism, Industrial Wage Slavery, Tyrannical Authority, and Mental Bondage.
"[35] Bob James writes: "Vance Marshall has claimed that ‘for six years… [Desmond’s] finger was traceable in every decisive movement associated with the [Australian] working class.
Colonial Secretary George R. Dibbs is reported to have held up a copy of Hard Cash during a cabinet meeting and said: "This thing has cost us £3,000,000.
"[37][2] A high level of pressure being brought to bear, Sydney’s police attempted to shut down Hard Cash and to put Arthur Desmond in prison.
After the notorious anarchy trials, the Australian Labor Party offered Desmond a seat in the New South Wales Parliament representing Durham in 1894.
"[38] With Justice Minister Thomas Slattery breathing fire, in the summer of 1894 Desmond folded The Standard Bearer and its successor, Hard Kash, after only three issues, and decided to take a permanent vacation.
When The Survival of the Fittest was finally published in 1896, Desmond used the pseudonym "Arthur Uing"[40] (a variation of his mother's maiden name, Ewing).
In 1897, a business called the Adolph Mueller Company was established at 108 South Clark Street, Chicago, whose sole interest seems to have been promoting and selling Ragnar Redbeard's books and writings.
Aided by staff members, Desmond biographer Darrell Conder extensively researched the records of the University of Chicago and found no such doctorate had ever been awarded.
Just a few blocks from his apartment, at 364 Wendell Street, Desmond opened a used bookstore named the "House O' Gowrie, Importers – Publishers – Printers – Booksellers."