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
December 2025 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 119, December 2025 has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/hx3hjh. The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/ftth0nContents
The Bum on the Rods and the Bum on the Plush by W. E. Jones
"The bum on the rods is a social flea
That gets an occasional bite,
The bum on the plush is a social leech,
Blood-sucking by day and night"
With an illustration by Richard Warren and notes on how the poem passed into oral tradition. https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/0vt616
The Spanish revolution, its mistakes and potential corrections [1934] by Nestor Makhno "the Spanish people still has hopes of not succumbing to the bourgeoisie and reckons that it is quite capable of setting the course for the revolution by means of which it will be in a position to realize its centuries-old ambitions: to be free and independent of the bourgeoisie and any order it imposes." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/3n5w31
Dupuy, Rolf (1946-2025) by Nick Heath "I was shocked to hear news of the death of Rolf Dupuy two days after his death. Rolf was one of the founders of the French ORA, and later animator of the Dictionnaire International des Militants Anarchistes, a huge online resource in the French language, on biographies of libertarian militants around the world." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/2rbqq4
Death of Emilio Ceragioli, Glasgow 1945 by Frank Leech "He remained consistent and loyal to his Anarchist views to the end. We will miss his advice, encouragement, and his comradeship." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/x0k8tx
Half A Million Tramps "We’d like to put a scanned copy of Half a Million Tramps online for everyone to read freely. Are you a descendent of his? Can we have your permission to do so?" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/cz8z9j
Tom Brown, Tyneside syndicalist : a little more biographical info. "The 1939 national register records him (as ‘Thomas Brown’) living at 10 Torquay Street [London], that his date of birth was 01 Feb 1902; and that he was employed as ‘Aircraft Fitter Heavy Worker’." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/5hqdrt
Thoughts on anarchist libraries "inevitably there are more mentions of anarchist libraries than accounts of exactly what they were doing and why. I assume there’s a shared understanding of how they work. Which is not to say that they didn’t come in all shapes and sizes." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/w0vwjt
Jack Kielty by Dave Pude "I know that our movement has lost a truly proletarian character, breathing the old fighting atmosphere of the I.W.W. with a live, modernistic interpretation." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/fqz827
Library update [Dec 2025] Treasures / Biographies / Calendars https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/c2fsxp
A Note on the ‘Prehistory’ of the Kate Sharpley Library "We could call 1979-1982 our ‘prehistory’ when what would later be called the Kate Sharpley Library was coming together." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v15h6j
August 2025 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 118, August 2025 has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/t1g3tw. The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/gf1xjzContents
What Anarchists Want [Leaflet] "Instead of loving violence, as we are accused, we hate it and are determined to abolish it, but we will not admit that any concession should be made to injustice." [We believe this dates to 1892/93] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/p2njn8
Death of Octavio Alberola (1928-2025) by Agustín Comotto. "Octavio Alberola was a different sort, with a unique turn of mind and a commendable optimism about the human race." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/ksn258
Decades in the Struggle: Interviewing older anarchists. "a project interviewing anarchist and anarchist-adjacent thinkers, writers, and activists (aged 60 and older, who are fluent in spoken English) in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and beyond." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/hx3hg5
Malcolm Archibald: 50 years of Black Cat Press (interviewed by Sean Patterson) "When I became active in the anarchist movement in Canada in the 1970s, the anarchists were all poverty-stricken, trying to survive in minimum-wage jobs. The next generation was much better off and had a lot of money to throw around. Now, the current generation is back to being dirt poor again, lacking the resources to make an impact. But I think the prospects for the future are good". https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/1jwvk6
Anarchist César Orquín, Hero of Mauthausen by Guillem Llin Llopis. "On 13 December 1940 he arrived in Mauthausen as deportee No 805. As he spoke German, they made him an interpreter. It was then that he came up with a plan to save as many [Spanish] republican lives as he could." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4b8jmz
Carl Nold by Otto Herman. "He came frequently to Chicago, and the first question he asked was always: ‘Do you have enough wine in your cellar?’ […] Comrade Carl Nold did not claim to be a hero, but he was a sincere fighter against capitalism and the State with its cruel political machinery." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/3bk57f
Man in the biscuit tin… "From 1933 to 1940 Marcus Graham edited Man! A Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement for the International Group of San Francisco…" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/2bvs0h
Shadows In The Struggle For Equality [Book review]. "Hart builds on Yelensky’s work with a 70 page foreword discussing prison solidarity from the Anarchist Red Cross to today and a set of appendices filling out parts of the story to 1958". https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/547g18
Library update (Aug. 2025) [amongst other things] "Anyone read good historic accounts of what other anarchist libraries aimed to do?" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/hdr9v5
Graham Moss. "He learnt printing at Freedom Press in the 1960s and was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/vq85qf