The ‘Finest library on Anarchy’ : Georges Pilotelle, Columbia University and anarchist print culture

Anarchist libraries sometimes arise from a personal collection of books and papers, and sometimes such collections end up within an institution. In June 1903 reports appeared of the purchase of the ‘Finest library on Anarchy – Books, Pamphlets and Flaming Posters of the Most Violent Character Secured by Columbia.

‘The Columbia library on Morningside Heights has just come into the possession of a complete anarchistic library of some 2,000 books, pamphlets and documents, and in a few weeks they will be ready for reference. It is stated by Dr. James P. Canfield, the head librarian, that it is the most complete collection of its kind in the world. It originally belonged to a French anarchist. On his death in London last year the collection passed into the hands of administrators, and they had the books put up at auction. Columbia bought them for $100.’ [1]

Other reports gave much fuller details of what was in this collection: ‘Some time ago, says the New York Post, it came to the attention of Dr. Vladimir G. Sienkhovitch [Simkhovitch], the university bibliophile, that a French anarchist long resident at London, and of considerable literary ability, had died in the course of the winter, and that his library had passed to administrators who were plainly ignorant of the character of the calling of the man. Dr. Sienkhovitch, however, knew that the dead man had spent the greater part of his life in making an exhaustive collection of all the valuable anarchistic literature extant; he noticed that this collection, which consisted not only of books and pamphlets, but also of posters, periodicals, journals and broadsides, was turned over by the administrators to the Sothebys, the London book auctioneers, and soon found hidden away in their spring catalogue an item advertising the sale of the entire collection. […] 

‘The entire collection, in twenty-four large boxes, arrived at New York in the spring. The work of examination, classification, appraisal, cataloguing and binding has been going on now for several weeks, but has not yet been completed. Neither the scientific nor the pecuniary value of the consignment can as yet be ascertained, but as an indication of the worth of the collection it may be stated that much of this material appears in no existing bibliography, being hitherto unknown […] 

‘The list includes 232 sets of newspapers and periodicals, nine-tenths of which are absolutely complete; In addition there are nearly 300 anarchistic pamphlets and books, a collection of 270 huge sheet posters and broadsides, most of which have no duplicates; hundreds of photographs of prominent agitators of all countries; an enormous body of letters, documents, manifestoes and autograph manuscripts by most of the leading anarchists, from Bakounin [Bakunin], the Russian, down to the present time, and a vast quantity of inflammatory songs and clippings from nonanarchistic publications.

‘Access could be had to only a small part of the collection, most of it now being in the hands of the binders, but an idea of its scope, magnitude and importance can be gained from the following specimen items: A death warrant, forecasting to the inner circle the assassination of President Sadi-Carnot of France six hours before its occurrence; nine manuscript writings by the famous Louise Michel; a warrant issued from a London police court for the apprehension of a desperate foreign incendiary; the school books of Ravachol; announcements of attacks to be directed against nearly all of the crowned heads of Europe and photographs of Lucheni, who assassinated the empress of Austria. Another striking exhibit is a batch of scorched papers found on the person of a London anarchist who died while hurling a bomb into a crowded square. [2]

‘Among the periodicals in the collection are La Pere Peinard, published in Paris by E. Pouget from 1889 to 1896, only two copies being known; Der Socializt, published in Berlin; the Alarm, which comes from Chicago; La Questione Sociale, an Italian paper printed in Paterson, N.J.; El Porvenir Anarquista, from Barcelona, Spain; Gazeta Robotnicza, a Polish publication from Chicago; Volne Listy, a New York anarchistic paper in the Czechish tongue: Freedom, the great organ of the London agitators; the Beacon, printed in San Francisco; Le Tempre Nouveau [Les Temps Noveaux], Prince Krapotkin [Kropotkin]’s paper, and Caserio, which appears in Buenos Ayres [Aires], the capital of the Argentine Republic. These periodicals are printed in English, German, French, all the Scandinavian languages, new Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Slavonic, Czechish, Spanish, Yiddish and many other dialects and languages. [3]

‘On the opening of Columbia’s one hundred and fiftieth year in the autumn the entire collection will be placed conspicuously on view in the university library. A member of the faculty who has specialized in this field made the following comment on the anarchica:

‘“The collection has equal interest for students of modern history, of sociology, of penology and of morbid psychology; and it is unquestionably the most complete of its kind, not only in the United States, but in the world.” ’[4]

The Sotheby’s listing gives a little more information:

‘223 Anarchism. An Extraordinary Collection of Anarchist Documents (about 2,000) written in French, English, Russian, German, Italian, Polonese [Polish], Armenian, Tzechish [Czech], Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Danish, Hebrew [i.e. Yiddish], etc. comprising Autographs of the most celebrated Anarchists : Prince Bakounine, Prince Kropotkine, Elisé Reclus, Louise Michel, Ravachol, Vaillant, Henry, Caserio Santo, etc. Anarchist Brochures and Books in different languages ; Anarchist Posters and single sheets (some of very large size) ; Anarchist Newspapers of every part of the Globe; Anarchist Portraits, Photos; Anarchist Manuscripts, etc. etc. contained in 24 red Folio Cases of 44 in. width, with inscription “Evolution libertaire since 1871.” [5]

‘A detailed list will be sold with the collection. It would be impossible now to form another similar collection.’ [6]

The details confirmed this really was a collection of anarchist publications (not broadly radical or even non-anarchist), despite touches of sensational reporting (the ‘London anarchist who died while hurling a bomb into a crowded square’ sounded like an exaggeration of Martial Bourdin’s death in Greenwich, in 1894). But who was this ‘dead French anarchist’? The obvious first step was to ask if Columbia University knew who the collection originally belonged to. No, but Robert H. Davis at Columbia University Libraries directed me to an article by Lyubov Ginzburg which tells us more about why it was collected: 

‘Vladimir Grigorievich Simkhovitch (1874–1959), [was] an astute librarian, and later a Columbia professor of Economic History and Economics, social-democrat and long-time resident of New York’s Greenwich Settlement House. In 1901, shortly after the assassination of President McKinley by anarchist Leon Czolgosz (1873–1901), Simkhovitch dispatched a letter to Professor Butler, then acting president of Columbia University, providing his perspective of the incident and writing that “the failing to prevent anarchistic crimes and punish the real criminal is entirely due to the fact that neither the government nor even the academic political science has here the slightest idea about theories, tendencies, and aims of the different anarchistic groups.” Simkhovitch further suggested that it was the proper time to entrust competent specialists “to investigate … and report about the origins and spread of anarchism in America [and] its interrelations with the revolutionary movements abroad.”’ [7]

Comparing the listing of what was in the ‘1903 collection’ with the Columbia University Library catalogue led to some possible matches including a bound volume ‘Newspaper clippings relating to the assassins Ravachol, A. Vaillant, E. Reclus,[!] Émile Henry, and Caserio Santo’.[8] Tanya Chebotarev, Curator, Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book & Manuscript Library was able to confirm that this was part of the ‘1903 collection’, that the original owner was Georges Pilotelle and provided a photo of his note bound in the volume. Interestingly, the ‘batch of scorched papers’ found on a body seem instead to be a set of press cuttings sold to Pilotelle by Bourdin’s brother Henri. But ‘scorched papers’ may be bound in the volume, too: it’s impossible to be sure without checking. Since Bourdin’s death was an inspiration for Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, presumably the Conradians would be interested, besides anyone interested in Martial Bourdin himself.

Who was Pilotelle? 

Georges Pilotelle (or Pilotelli, Pilotell) was a communard who lived in exile in London. An artist and Blanquist, Pilotelle declared himself chief delegate of Fine Arts during the Commune and then worked for the Commune’s police – including shooting prisoners during the ‘bloody week’ when the Commune was overrun.[9]

During his exile in London Pilotelle worked as an artist (including drawing Disraeli and members of the royal family)[10] and in the world of fashion. He also collected and published material relating to Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), and planned to write a book about Marat’s time in England. Pilotelle sold his Marat collection in December 1902 at Sotheby’s: ‘However, his collection was later in the possession of the collector Henri Bourdin.’ […] ‘Subsequently Le Gaulois, Notes and Queries (5 Dec. 1903) and Le Charivari announced the sale of the collection to an American millionaire and even the death of Pilotelle.’ [11]

Pilotelle did not die until 1918, but rumours of his death presumably come from this story of a ‘dead French anarchist’. Did he use that story to dispose of his anarchist collection anonymously? Was he simply a collector of anarchist materials? There are letters from Pilotelle at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. He wrote to Max Nettlau about Bakunin, to Louise Michel and to Friedrich Engels asking for documents relating to the Jura Federation.[12] In 1894 he was in touch with Malatesta (who, among other things, asked if he could suggest where a comrade artist could find work) [13] There’s one reference to him sending money for selling copies of Freedom (3 shillings in the November 1896 issue).

His 1897 letter to La Revue Blanche shows something of his (abrasive) character and attitude to the contemporary anarchist movement:

‘I am sorry that I cannot send you the notes that you are kind enough to ask me for on the Commune, but for a month I have not had a minute to myself.

‘And then I admit that I might have been too severe on our old friends. I am not talking about those who were slaughtered, although death is no excuse; but about these narrow-minded sectarians, with base desires, mediocre ambitious people, ready to be satisfied with the bone that is thrown to them to gnaw on; leaders, politicians and traitors.

‘Now something else is taking shape. The libertarian evolution, in this 19th century of absolute authoritarianism, is asserting itself superbly both philosophically and artistically. I have only one hope, that the mistakes of the Commune will serve future demolitionists.’ [14]

What is in the library?

It would be interesting to know what was in Pilotelle’s collection: does the list survive in the library’s archives? Or can anything now in the rare books collection of Columbia University Library be identified as formerly belonging to Pilotelle? After 120 years things may have been lost, or disposed of as duplicates. Items from Pilotelle’s collection may not have any sign of ownership. But there are things listed that seem worth looking at like the ‘Volume of Italian and Spanish anarchist periodical issues’, ‘a collection of socialistic and anarchistic ballads and songs in French and German’ and ‘Anarchistic pamphlets and posters in French, English, German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish, 1883-1896’. [15] What about the 29 bound volumes of pamphlets? Are any of those ‘in no existing bibliography’ still?

Wherever they came from, this material would throw some light on anarchist history and culture (printed or otherwise): there’s a project for someone (but maybe not a ‘morbid psychologist’).

[Thanks go to Robert H. Davis and Tanya Chebotarev at Columbia for their essential help; also to Constance Bantman, Pietro Di Paola, Barry Pateman and Paul Sharkey.

Image: ‘Newspaper clippings relating to the assassins Ravachol, A. Vaillant, E. Reclus, Émile Henry, and Caserio Santo’ Dewey collection, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.]

Notes

1, Willmar tribune (Willmar, Minn.), June 27, 1903 https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn89081022/1903-06-27/ed-1/?sp=3

2, Sadi Carnot was assassinated by Sante Caserio on 24 June 1894. Louise Michel (1830-1905) and Ravachol (1859-1892) were both French anarchists. Elizabeth Empress of Austria was assassinated by Luigi Luccheni on 10 September 1898.

3, Emile Pouget (1860-1931), Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921)

4, Rock Island Argus (Rock Is., Ill.), June 27, 1903 https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn92053934/1903-06-27/ed-1/?sp=10 

5, Michael Bakunin (1814-1876), Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), Elisé Reclus (1830-1905), Louise Michel (1830-1905), Ravachol (1859-1892), Auguste Vaillant (1861-1894), Émile Henry (1872-1894), Sante Caserio (1873-1894)

6, https://archive.org/details/b31825576/

7, Ginzburg, Lyubov ‘Two Russian Foundational Collections at Columbia University Library: Witte & Warburg’, Slavic & East European Information Resources Volume 23, Issue 1-2: The Slavic, East European & Eurasian Collections of Columbia University: Vignettes Towards an Anniversary History (2022) p.45-72] (Simkhovitch distinguished the Russian revolutionary movement from anarchists that used political violence who were ‘criminals of a most objectionable type’. Simkhovitch, V.G.‘Russia’s Struggle with Autocracy’ Political Science Quarterly, Vol.20, No.1 (Mar., 1905) p.118.)

8, https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/14987596

9, see Paul Lidsky’s Biography of Pilotelle at https://www.commune1871.org/la-commune-de-paris/histoire-de-la-commune/dossier-thematique/les-artistes-et-la-commune/611-pilotell-georges-raoul-eugene-un-artiste-communard-contraste

10, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG42048

11, Cock, Jaques de ‘The collection of Marat’s bibliographer at the British Library’, British Library Journal, vol.19, No.1, (1993) p.44-57.

12, Nettlau: https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/ARCH01001 ; Michel: https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/ARCH02550 ; Marx-Engels: https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/ARCH00860

13, https://www.schulsonautographs.com/images/upload/cat222_2.pdf

14, La Revue Blanche (January 1897) https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15533q/f382.item

15, https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/17831655, https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/14985478 and https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/14408698 but also try ‘Virtual Shelf Browse’ from there.