It has been written that Proudhon was the first anarchist, and maybe this is so, but Josiah Warren was eleven years older and already well in the trenches of studying society.
Josiah had seen the failings of communism at the Owenite Commune New Harmony, and had formed the basis of his ideas by as early as 1827. Those ideas were sovereignty of the individual.
This idea happened 21 years before Marxs Communist Manifesto, 40 years before Das Kapital.
The idea happened 13 years before even Proudhons Property is Theft.
The idea happened 65 years before Kropotkins the Conquest of Bread.
So when the non-individualist anarchists start to point out who really is and isn't a 'original' anarchist they maybe need a history lesson.
Awesome thanks, i didn't know about Josiah Warren, got some reading to do
His book, True Civilization is the better of his works.
Equitable Commerce, is mostly about trying to solve the economic problems of his time, and is completely outdated, due to the modern realization of The Subjective Theory of Value.
His time stores are interesting, and there continue to be concepts somewhat in that vein of thought, specifically Timebanking.