Philadelphia poet and journalist Horace L. Traubel's work as biographer of Walt Whitman has overshadowed his role as crusading editor. Traubel (1858-1919) devoted 30 years to publishing the "Conservator," a monthly newspaper that reflected its editor's idiosyncratic philosophy and crusaded persistently for libertarian principles. He made the "Conservator" a champion of academic and artistic freedom and attacked those who sought to constrain liberties. Although the "Conservator" had a limited circulation, its readers--and Traubel's followers--included a number of noteworthy individuals. Among them were Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, soap magnate and reformer Joseph Fels, iconoclastic lecturer Robert G. Ingersoll, and William E. Walling, the reformer who helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Traubel and the "Conservator" deserve recognition for their contributions to the tradition of dissent in America. (Author/RB)