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John Keracher

American communist

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ6242954 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Keracher (16 January 1880 – 11 January 1958) was a Scottish-born American Marxist activist and author. He helped found the Proletarian Party of America in 1920, and was its leader for several decades. He also managed the Charles H. Kerr & Co. book publishing firm after its founder retired.

Biography

Early years

John Keracher was born on January 16, 1880, in Dundee, Scotland. The self-taught son of a shoemaker, he was exposed at a young age to the "impossibilist" Scottish socialist tradition associated with Daniel De Leon. While in his early twenties, Keracher left for England. After living there a number of years, he emigrated in 1909 to the United States. He settled in Detroit, where he was proprietor of the Reliance Shoe House, a retail shoe store located in downtown Detroit.

Political activism

In April 1910, Keracher joined the Michigan chapter of the Socialist Party of America (SPA).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “John Keracher” as american communist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1880, 1958, 1920, 1909—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1880-01-01. The account is most persuasive where John, Keracher and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american communist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6242954. VIAF identifies the subject as 43952529. The Library of Congress control number is no2001062849. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 1958, 1920 and 1909.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John Keracher” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.