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 2019 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 99, July 2019 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/00013nContents:
The First of May. "This coming May 1st, the Toilers of the entire world will take to the streets: to do what? Why will they do so? To demand what? A palliative that is not going to be able to bring about any improvement in our lot." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sf7nrt
The Sons of Night by Antoine Gimenez and the Giménologues "This is a great work of history from below, full of untold stories and unheard voices. There’s Hans ‘Jack’ Vesper who dragged himself back through no-man’s land and ended up in such a state that he thought he was a bear." [Book review] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/3j9mh6
Factionalism & Individualism by Albert Meltzer "Declension: “I assert individuality”; “You introduce factionalism”; “They are schismatics”" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8gtk63
Anarchist history roundup July 2019 part 1. Peter the Painter, Wobblies, Emma Goldman and Special Branch files on British anarchists (1945-52) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9cnqkv (part two escaped from the bulletin and is at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/12jnb5
Brenda Christie (1949-2019): a tribute "she turned her back on the ‘dolce vita’ of sixties Milan because it ‘failed to satisfy her sense of moral integrity.’ Instead, she lived a life full and committed." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/nvx26g
The Russian anarchist movement in North America by Lazar Lipotkin [review] "Lipotkin provides an extremely valuable account of the activities of the Russian anarchist movement in America, which was affected but not destroyed by repression in both America and Russia." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/gxd3pf
Brenda
Awful news has come from Stuart Christie on the passing of his partner and comrade, Brenda. Stuart was one of the earliest supporters and friends of the Kate Sharpley Library. Our hearts go out to him and all his family at such a grievous loss. Solidarity and love from us all at KSL to Stuart, Branwen and the lovely grandchildren. Vale Brenda. .Stuart's eulogy for Brenda is at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9kd6dm
Our tribute from the KSL is at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/nvx26g
Out soon: A Towering Flame: The Life and Times of the Elusive Latvian Anarchist Peter the Painter
Breviary Stuff Publications are soon to publish the researches of Phil Ruff which have identified Peter the Painter as the Latvian anarchist Jānis Žāklis (and given details of the rest of his remarkable life).A review of the limited English-language edition published in Latvia is at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/6t1h62. Details on the book at https://www.breviarystuff.org.uk/philip-ruff-a-towering-flame/
The book launch, organised by the Bristol Radical History Group is happening at the Cube Cinema on Monday 3rd June 2019. More details here: https://www.brh.org.uk/site/events/behind-the-myth-of-peter-the-painter/
February 2019 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 97-98, February 2019 [Double issue] has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/k0p452Contents
Osvaldo Bayer is Dead "He showed up at every protest by workers, peasants and native communities. Championship of ethics and human rights was his forte." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/dr7v4s
Osvaldo Bayer 1927-2018: In Memoriam by Frank Mintz "There is no separating Osvaldo Bayer’s output from the annals of Argentinean and world anarchism" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wstsc1
Alan MacSimoin 1957-2018 "Coming from Irish Republicanism to anarchism in the 1970s, he belonged to the Murrays Defence Committee, the Dublin Anarchist Group, the Anarchist Workers Alliance and helped found the Workers Solidarity Movement in 1984." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v15gk9
Anarchy: A Definition by Stuart Christie "Whatever the immediate prospects of achieving a free society, and however remote the ideal, if we value our common humanity then we must never cease to strive to realise our vision." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/cnp66m
A beautiful idea: history of the Freedom Press anarchists by Rob Ray [Book review] "Rob Ray’s book begins with the disarming confession that he imagined writing a ‘relatively short pamphlet’ (p3). 300 pages later you’ve been given a whistle-stop tour of Freedom’s history" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/vhhp7d
Statement by the Black Flag Group to the Liverpool Conference of the Anarchist Federation of Britain, Sept., 1968 "Anarchism is a revolutionary method of achieving a free non-violent society, without class divisions or imposed authority." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/5x6bxp
1952: Barcelona executions, global protests (Case number 658-IV-49) including material by Miguel Garcia Garcia "Every one of the resistance organizations – with only a few exceptions – had been smashed. Some had shot it out, some had been taken by surprise, some had been shot down." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/nzs92j
The Invisible Dictatorship [a short history of Anarchy magazine (second series)] by Philip Ruff "Humbled as I am to be awarded the position of Great Helmsman of the Anarchy Collective, the historical facts are rather different." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/pc87wq
News from the Kate Sharpley Library, February 2019 (more books on the way!) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/z8wc83
David Porter "David was a fine man and a fine historian." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/189463
The Massana Gang by Imanol (with material by José Ester Borrás) "his was possibly the only group of any vintage that suffered no losses and that was a real rarity; his life was also spared because after he had disarmed some customs officers in France, he was charged and was then banished far from the French-Spanish border and was not deported." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/hqc13r
Thoughts on ‘What everyone should know about state repression’ by Victor Serge "The book’s an evocation of the Russian revolutionary tradition which gives it a certain amount of derring-do" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/h70tdc
Extras
Photo of eight Nabat Confederation anarchists with notes by Malcolm Archibald and Anatoly Dubovik https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bvq9fq
The Funeral of Sazhin-Ross by A. Alekseyev, Translation and notes by Malcolm Archibald. https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/p2nj3h
Bolshevik Concern for the Individual by V.T., Translation and notes by Malcolm Archibald. "He describes the mechanisms for control of the work force in a huge industrial plant in the USSR of the 1930s. As an example of this control, he recounts the plight of an exemplary worker who, like many Soviet citizens, had a dangerous, potentially fatal, secret in his past." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/rv1747
The Lost Memoirs of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Isaak Tarasiuk (Translation and editing by Malcolm Archibald, who would like to thank Vyacheslav Azarov for making this document available. The information about Isaak Tarasiuk’s life is the based on research by Vyacheslav Azarov, Anatoly Dubovik, and Viktor Savchenko.) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/2jm776
Ivan Alekseyevich Yudin by G. P. Maximoff https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sj3wn2
And two poems:
The gods are dead by J. William Lloyd https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/w0vvwd
The Disinherited by J. William Lloyd https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bzkjd9
October 2018 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 96, October 2018 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sj3wmwContents:
Pierre Monatte: no stripes, no rank by Louis Mercier Vega "His reportage, his pamphlets explain, appeal, invite and incite. Not some mania but dogged questing after what might be and sometimes was. With no illusions and no regrets." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/h44kgz
Revolution and the State: Anarchism and the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Danny Evans [Review] "Evans approaches history with questions to ask, rather than ready-made answers to bludgeon us with." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/vdnf90
The missing memoirs of Tom Brown, Tyneside syndicalist. "If you know the current location of his memoirs, or you can tell us something that would help to track them down, we’d be glad to hear from you." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4xgzk7
Juan Busquets (former Maquis) on Ramón Vila Capdevila, his comrade "I want them to bury me
Way up in the high mountains
Alongside the tall pine tree
That stands alone in the gully"
https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bg7br6
Anarchism, 1914-1918: Internationalism, anti-militarism and war [Book Review] by Barry Pateman "The anthology brings together many themes that we still struggle with today and opens many doors so that others can go through. Hopefully more work will be produced as a result of these essays." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/pnvzpw
Recently received (October 2018). https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/5qfw0j