Jacques Élie Henri Ambroise Ner (7 December 1861 – February 6, 1938), also known by the pseudonymHan Ryner, was a French individualist anarchist philosopher and activist and a novelist. He wrote for publications such as L'Art social, L'Humanité nouvelle,L'Ennemi du Peuple, L'Idée Libre de Lorulot; and L'En dehors and L'Unique of fellow anarchist individualist Émile Armand. His thought is mainly influenced by stoicism andepicureanism.

He was born in Nemours (now Ghazaouet,Tlemcen Province), Department of Orán,French Algeriain a modest religious family. After the death of his mother, he abandoned Catholicism, associated himself with Freemasons and started having an interest in social ideas.

He published 2 novels in 1894–1895 and also later started working as a journalist. After that he took a teacher position but struggled in having to fit in in such a disciplined environment. He becomes a prolific literary writer.

In 1896, he adopted the pseudonym "Han Ryner" and started writing for such magazines asL'Art social,L'Humanité nouvelleof Augustin Hamon,L'Ennemi du Peupleof Emile Janvion andL'Idée Libre. From here he started collaborating in the important individualist anarchist magazineL'EnDehorsandL'UniqueofÉmile Armand.

In 1900 he wrote the essayLe crime d'obéir(the crime of obeying) and in 1903 he wrote the essayPetit manuel individualiste, in which he presented his anarchist individualist doctrine influenced by classic Greekstoicismin the works ofEpictetus. By the 1920s his thought starts having an important influence in Spain within individualist anarchist circles especially through the translations of his work by Juan Elizalde. Han Ryner started writing in Spanish individualist journals such asÉtica, which already had an important influence of the thought of Ryner.^[1]The Brazilian individualist anarchistMaria Lacerda de Mouratook the task of making his philosophy and writing become known in thePortuguese-speaking world.^[2]

With theFirst World Warapproaching. Han Ryner embraces pacifist and anti-war positions and promotesconscience objection. In his anti-war activism he collaborates withÉmile Armand.

He campaigned for the liberation of Eugène Dieudonné in 1913; for that of Émile Armand during the war; for the mutiny in the Black Sea, and for the Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and for the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno. Radicalanticlerical, adheres to the World Committee against War and Fascism. He also opposed World War I on pacifist anti militaristic grounds. He was a rare case of an anarchist participating in the Félibrige. He died in Paris on February 6, 1938.

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