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The Left Book Club: an Historical Record Gordon B Wayne State University School of Library and Information Science Faculty School of Library and Information Science Research Publications 9-1-1970 The Left Book Club: An Historical Record Gordon B. Neavill Royal Malta Library, [email protected] Recommended Citation Neavill, G. B. (1971). The left book club: An historical record. [Book Review]. Library Quarterly, 41(2), 173-175. Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/slisfrp/50 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Library and Information Science at DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Library and Information Science Faculty Research Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. REVIEWS 173 ment, 15 pages,devoted to any countryis that measures against Hitler in time to prevent on the United States; the Scandinaviancoun- World War II. At its peak there were 1,200 tnresand the Eastern Europeanones outside local Left Book Club discussiongroups, spe- of the USSR receive 3 and 2 pages, respec- cialist groups for poets, actors, scientists,and tively. These sections, then, are only bare- many other professions,and Left Book Club bones summary sketches, and, while they organizationsoverseas. The club sponsored would be useful as introductorymaterial for mass rallies, summerschools, political educa- the uninformed,they are less valuable and tion classes,speaking tours by Left Book Club successful than the two other main sections authors,and amateurleft-wing theatricalpro- of the work. Two misconceptionsin the sec- ductions.It attemptedto reach an even wider tion on the United States may be pointedout. audiencethrough pamphlets and leaflets. It is not true that the New York Public Li- Lewis was national organizerof the Left brary (Reference Department) has no sub- Book Club groups from December 1936 to ject departments(Fackabteilungen, p. 279); 1940. Lewis describesin great detail the ac- there are, in fact, a dozen such divisions for tivities of the club up to the outbreakof war. Amenrcanhistory, art and architecture,eco- He sets the club in the context of Gollancz's nomics,Orientalia, science and technology,and approachto political education.He describes Slavonica, among others. And, as far as I the club's organizationand notes many of its know,no Americanuniversity having an under- selectionsand the galaxyof well-knownnames graduatelibrary prohibits undergraduates from associatedwith the club as authorsand speak- using the main or "researchlibrary" (p. 283). ers. But his accountleaves muchto be desired. Kluth has produced an exceedinglysolid, The details of the club's history are pre- sound work of a very difficultkind, and the sented accuratelybut uncritically.The imme- publisher,Harrassowitz, has given us a well- diate success of the Left Book Club indicated printed,typographically almost error-freevol- the existenceof a large audienceready to be ume on good paper and with ample margins. enlistedin Gollancz'scrusade, but there is no In summary,plaudits all around. analysis of the factors that made the club such a perfect responseto this need. There is J. PERIAM DANTON no attempt to analyze the soundness of Gol- University of California lancz's programof a Popular Front of anti- Berkeley Fascists at home and a collective security al- liance abroad.There is little discussionof how the club was regardedoutside its own ranks, except for its unfriendlyreception by some of The Left Book Club: An Historical Record. the leadersof the Labourparty. Lewis is more By JOHN LEwIs.Foreword by Dame MAR- apologist than historian.He ignoresthe occa- GARETCOLE. London: Victor Gollancz sional complaintsabout Gollancz'sstrict per- Ltd., sonal 1970. Pp. 163. 36s. control of the club. There is no refer- ence to the uncomplimentaryaccounts of group One approaches John Lewis's The Left Book meetings in Arthur Koestler's autobiography Club with high expectations.A history of the The Invisible Writing or George Orwell's novel club has been needed,and John Lewis, as the Coming Up for Air. The only shortcomings only survivingmember of the club's day-to- Lewis admits are the obvious-that the selec- day leadership,is well qualifiedto write it. tions on the Moscowpurge trials were "frankly The book, however,is a disappointment.Lewis misleading"and that the club ended a failure. has writtena pedestrianand uncriticalaccount There are a few serious omissions.Orwell's which neither tells the full story of the Left The Road to Wigan Pier was one of the best Book Clubnor analyzesits real significance. books issued by the club, and also one of the The Left Book Club was founded in 1936 most controversial.The first half, which de- by the English publisherVictor Gollancz.It scribedthe life of minersin northernEngland, began as a book club and developedinto the was ideal for the club's purposes,but in the leading left-wing movement of the 1930s in secondhalf Orwellwas stronglycritical of the Britain.Gollancz hoped that if enoughpeople characteristicsof many socialists. Gollancz could be awakenedto the dangerof fascism, tried to reassureclub membersin a long Fore- the British governmentwould be forced to word.Later the club issued the book in a spe- abandon its complacency and take strong cial edition for propagandapurposes which 174 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY omittedpart 2 altogether.Lewis mentions none dub's monthly journal Left News, deserves of this. He merely passes over the book with attention. Under the direction of the distin- a commentabout Orwell'sexcellent treatment guishedAustrian socialist Julius Braunthal,it of social problems. provideda platformfor exiled Continentalso- The Left Book Clubhas sometimesbeen un- cialists,and its contributorsincluded such lead- fairly criticizedas the captive of the Com- ing figuresas Louis de Brouckbreand Pietro munist party. Communistswere welcomedin Nenni. Lewis does provide,however, an inter- the club and their influencewas considerable, esting discussionof the residualinfluence of but they never controlledit. Lewis devotes a the Left Book Club in the armedforces, par- chapter to the club and communism,and on ticularly through the lecturers of the Army the wholehis conclusionsare fair and balanced. Bureau of CurrentAffairs, which may have But to some extenthe underestimatesthe Com- contributed to the left-wing consciousness mumst contributionto the club. The Com- among British servicementhat helped bring munistsplayed a largerrole in the groupsthan the Labourgovernment to power in 1945. Lewis indicates. And he states, "There were Lewis has wnrttenthe history of the Left in fact very few communistsamong the au- Book Club as seen from its headquarters. thors of the Monthly Choice."Nearly a third There is no bibliography,but he seems to of the monthly choices before the war were have relied mainly on the detailedrecords of writtenby Communistauthors. Some of these the club's activities in Left News, on Gol- were crudelypropagandistic, but several,such lancz's autobiographicalwritings, and on his as Allen Hutt's Post-WarHistory of the Brit- own recollections.He might have achieveda ish Working Class, remain useful studies broaderperspective by tapping sources rang- today. And it must be admittedthat the com- ing from the Daily Workerto Scrutiny,and munism of Stephen Spender,whose autobio- varioushistories and memoirs. graphicalForward from Liberalismwas the The author and printer have conspiredto January 1937 choice, was short-livedand ex- convey an impressionof carelessness.Minor tremely superficial.Lewis fails to note the errors,misprints, and inconsistenciesare scat- reservationssome Communistshad about the tered throughoutthe book. Documentationis club. After actively opposingother parties of skimpy and not always accurate.On page 19, the Left in the late 1920s and early 1930s, for instance,the statementabout provocative some local Communistparty brancheshad not typographyattributed to Gollanczis in fact yet fully accepted the party's new policy of by Stanley Morison,the creatorof Gollancz's cooperationand thoughtit a waste of time to remarkablehouse style; and on the same page work in an organizationthat welcomed all the quotation about Gollancz'sgenius as a shades of opinion. The Communistintellec- publisheris by MargaretCole, not John Car- tual Alick West, althoughhe played an active ter, from her 1938 pamphletBooks and the role in the club's Readersand Wnrtersgroup, People. has revealed in his recently publishedauto- The book containsa completechronological biographythat he held a low opinion of the Bibliographyof the Left Book Club's257 selec- club and consideredGollancz's efforts as senti- tions. It is a great contributionto have the mentality. full list of these books, which involved con- Lewis ends his detailedaccount of the Left siderable effort to compile, finally in print. Book Club with the outbreakof war and Gol- The monthlychoices, which were automatically lancz's split with the Communists.The club receivedby the club's entire membership,are survived until 1948, and Lewis devotes just indicated,and the optionalbooks are identified twelve pages to its last nine years. The club's in their several series. The authors represent most significantera was over,the causesit had the entire range of the British Left of the struggledfor had been lost, and its strength late 1930s except for the Trotskyites. The was much reduced. Nevertheless,the club's Labour party authors, except for Clement last years deservefuller treatmentthan Lewis Attlee, mainly representits
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