Victor Dave was born in
Aalst, Belgium, on 25 February 1847, to a customs officer. He showed interest in freethinking and socialism in his youth and attended the
University of Liège and
Université libre de Bruxelles. The Marxist socialist
Paul Lafargue introduced Dave to the anarchist political thought of
Proudhon at an 1869 international student congress in
Liège. Within two years, Dave joined the Brussels branch of the
International Workingmen's Association and two years later, its general council. He represented the international wing at the
1872 Hague Congress and the mechanics of Verviers at the
1873 Geneva Congress. At the former, Dave read the minority report supporting federative autonomy and voted against anarchist
Bakunin's expulsion from the union. He worked on multiple French- and Dutch-language newspapers in the worker's association. He did not participate in the 1873 Spanish
Cantonal rebellion despite rumours otherwise. After marrying Marie Archambault of
Loches, the couple moved to Paris in 1878, where Dave met
Johann Most. Together, they moved to Most's London two years later, following their expulsion from France, and worked on the German anarchist newspaper
Freiheit. Dave was arrested for treason in
Augsburg in late 1880 and received a five-year sentence at trial. Upon his release in 1884, he returned to London, and three years later, Paris, as the French ban lifted. He worked in journalism and translation, editing for Éditions Schleicher and
Augustin Hamon's ''
. He wrote a biography of Fernand Pelloutier and co-published the Revue générale de bibliographie française''. He joined the proofreaders and copywriters union in 1911. Prominent anarchist
Emma Goldman wrote of Dave being the most impressive man she met in
fin de siècle Paris. By 1914, Dave became a follower of
Kropotkin and in 1916, a signer of the
Manifesto of the Sixteen for
Allied intervention in
the World War. He died on 31 October 1922, in Paris. == References ==