Welcome to the Kate Sharpley Library

The Kate Sharpley Library exists to preserve and promote anarchist history. (More information.)

Everything at the Kate Sharpley Library - acquisitions, cataloguing, preservation work, publishing, answering enquiries is done by volunteers: we get no money from governments or the business community. All our running costs are met by donations from members of the collective, subscribers and supporters, or by the small income we make through publishing. Please consider donating and subscribing.

We also try to promote the history of anarchism by publishing studies based on those materials - or reprints of original documents taken from our collection. Check out our books and pamphlets available for sale or explore our online documents or browse back issues of our Bulletin.

Our physical library (in California) includes books, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts and ephemera documenting the history of anarchist movements. Contact us to arrange a visit.

Recent news

July 2018 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 95, July 2018 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/0gb6n3

Contents:
Lenin is a-coming by Camillo Berneri "The working man needs to be told that Lenin will not be crossing the Alps like some 'great red bear' to liberate Italy" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/fn30gg
Anarchism in the 1980s: an interview with another ex-member of Bristol Class War. "It made you feel confident and strong. It wasn’t us who should be worried. It was them! ‘Behold Your Future Executioners!’" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/dncm56
Portrait of the artist as a wanted man: Philip Ruff’s search for Peter the Painter by John Patten "Ruff has discovered the where and how of his last disappearance. The final words of the book reflect on Žāklis’s fate, but also show what Ruff has learned himself: ‘survival can demand as much bravery as the willingness to die for a noble cause’." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/6t1h62
The Anarchists in London 1935-1955 : a Personal Memoir by Albert Meltzer [Review]. "When the second edition of 'The Albert Memorial' was being put together, I recall one of Albert’s comrades saying ‘I miss the old rascal’. Now we have a chance to enjoy some of his work again. https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wpzjc8
Anarchist History Roundup July 2018 The Rag-Pickers’ Puigcerdá Manifesto: Fight for History; Tyneside Anarchist Archive; Working Class History Podcast: John Barker Interview; Sparks of Hope; Anarchist history on screen https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/crjftg

March 2018 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 93-94, March 2018 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/m0chf2

Contents:
Here is Louise Michel (by Louise Michel) "She is a menace to society, for she has declared a hundred times that everyone should take part in the banquet of life." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/k98tx0
The Princess Casamassima by Henry James [Review]. "The idea that it is the sheer usefulness of the poor that makes the rich determined to keep them poor was evidently beyond Henry James." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sqvbs5
Mr Batllori’s Death. The Friend of Ferrer "the kind and modest comrade whom an imperfect knowledge of our tongue rendered very coy, and whose face bore the indelible imprint of the torments he had previously undergone." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/j9kfn0
Tom Keell by Oscar Swede "And what good did all the talking do? Well, it kept the torch alive and has handed it on." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wm39dr
Transition and the right to well-being by Albert Meltzer "If the community advances all are responsible – if we are not now in the conditions of the Middle ages everyone has contributed in one way or another to what is, and the right to well-being is universal. Not just for the famous, or the rich, or the well connected; not just for the proletariat or for all those who work – but all." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/cnp6vw
Gig economy, pig economy by Richard Warren [cartoon] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/vmcx4n
The Price We Pay "The social wealth created isn’t used to benefit all of us equally – far from it! A large slice is constantly creamed off by a small section of the population who do no work at all – the ruling class." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bnztks
Anarchy and the art of motor-cycle maintenance [Or, Squatting in Ilford] by Chris Broad. "It is as though we are separated by a wall, one side painted blue and the other green. We both agree that the wall must be destroyed, but at the moment we are fighting each other over what colour the wall is." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/tqjrqk
Looking at Anarchist solidarity with prisoners and exiles in the Soviet Union "Not only did they stop people from starving: there was the psychological support of being remembered." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xgxftm
Anarchist Solidarity : An exchange between Lilly Sarnoff and Alexander Berkman "Well, you are at liberty to have your own opinion on the matter. That is why I call myself an Anarchist, leaving others free to act and think as they believe best." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/18944r
Library News (March 2018) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/h70tc6
Book news/mini-reviews [March 2018] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/08kqs5

London Anarchist Bookfair 2017

The 2017 London Anarchist Bookfair will be on Saturday 28th October from 10am to 7pm.
Venue: Park View School, West Green Road, N15 3QR
Rail/Tube: Seven Sisters (National Rail or Victoria Line) / Turnpike Lane (Picadilly Line)
Buses: 41:, 67, 230, 341 (get off at stop near junction of Black Boy Lane and West Green Road).
Access: Full disabled access
Children: Free child care is provided from 10am to 6pm for kids from 2 to 12.

Details of meetings etc at: http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk/


This is also your chance to pick up our new pamphlet
The Anarchists in Paris, May-June 1968 by Le Flutiste
An anarchist eyewitness to the revolt of May-June 1968, Le Flûtiste ("the flute player") looks back on the highs and lows of Paris' student-worker rebellion. Topics covered include, student life before the revolt, the barricades of the Latin Quarter, the student and worker occupations and strikes and the part played by the anarchists in the upheaval.
More details at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/rxwfqq

October 2017 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 91-92, October 2017 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4xgzhw

Contents:
An obscure heroine by Ida Pilat Isca https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/gf1wxq
Everlasting Murder by Max Baginski https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/mcvg3d
Rejecting the Legend by Louis Mercier Vega https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/573p98
Why I am an anarchist by Nikolai Ivanovich Pavlov https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/k6dkzd
Kropotkin Goes Missing https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/280hck
Postbag / Library News https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8sf8vm
Crass and Class War in the Thatcher years, by an ex-member of Bristol Class War https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/n2z4nh
[Stop the city] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/41nt45
Stonehenge ’85 https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/m37r94
Leah Feldman Interview (Leah Feldman, Leo Rosser and Philip Ruff) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/kd52tb
[Debating the Miners’ Strike 1] The Miners and the Left https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/c2fs2c
[Debating the Miners’ Strike 2] Letter: [The Miners and the Left] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/31zdsp
[Debating the Miners’ Strike 3] Letter: The Miners’ Strike and the Anarchists https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/k3jc14
[Debating the Miners’ Strike 4] [Letter: Anarchists and the Miners’ strike] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/2548f5
[Debating the Miners’ Strike 5] The Miners & Social Change by Albert Meltzer https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/j3tzqq

May 2017 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 90, May 2017 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/1jwtwm

Contents:
Listen Punks! by Henry Black http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/fttg92
Thoughts on Anarchism in ‘the Thatcher years’ http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xsj5ks
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist by Alexander Berkman, annotated and introduced by Jessica Moran and Barry Pateman [Book review] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/jq2d87
Two interesting donations http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/dv4314
Left of the Left: my memories of Sam Dolgoff [Book review] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/djhc6m
Time Capsule a Reminder of Anarchist Struggles [Lausanne] by Cécile Collet http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v6wzcq
4th Historical Memory Cycle Ride: Pistolerismo in Zaragoza, 1920-1923 by Kike Garcia http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/31zdrh