Number 100-101 £1 or $2 Jan. 2020 Looking back at the back issues It seemed a simple idea: look through back issues of going on to not just ‘celebrate’ anarchism and the Kate Sharpley Library’s bulletin to find some anarchists but to worry at the ‘rough edges’ of what interesting articles, and then encourage people to read we know (or think we know). Here’s Barry Pateman them and think about anarchist history. The stuff is talking about the dangers historians (‘however there, it’s just it got me thinking about history too. anarchist they are’) face: ‘The rough edges of I already knew I should mention tributes we printed anarchism, as well as the apparently smooth and to historians who influenced us like Antonio Téllez straightforward areas, should be their territory; the and Paul Avrich. [1] Then there’s the profile of Andre contradictions that initially puzzle and the anomalies Prudhommeaux, back when we thought we could that are too worrying to ignore. Historians should be number the unknown anarchists we were commemor- the irritatingly sober person at the party warning you ating (and is this the first piece Paul Sharkey not to get too pissed on the historical correctness of translated?) [2] your ideas. The awkward truth is that mining seams of What really struck me, though, were the patterns. anarchist history purely in the light of our own present There are lots of loose threads: ‘This pamphlet is pre-occupations is at best ahistorical and at worst coming soon,’ and it never does, or ten years later. potentially dangerous for the movement. Such John Creaghe of Sheffield & Buenos Aires had to wait methodologies can easily dismiss the complexities of from 1993 to 2005.[3] anarchism in favour of comforting and rather one- Another recurring thread is the idea of showing dimensional interpretations. They can just as easily what the Kate Sharpley Library holds. At first the hope lead us to draw wrong conclusions about what we are was ‘for a partial list’ to be printed in issue 2 of the doing now and how we go forward because we may bulletin. [4] Later (moving with the times, that’s us) have drawn erroneous or simplistic conclusions about ‘We do have a working catalogue. […] We have toyed both what people believed and how their actions with the idea of putting it on the web.’ But we were reflected that belief.’ [7] painfully aware of the downside of that: ‘We haven’t So, if you think the next issue is late, thin, or it all because we don’t want to flatter to deceive. No one starts to look a bit too ‘work in progress’; dig out your works full time in the KSL. It’s all volunteer work. We back issues, or go and download them. You might find are wary of advertising ourselves too strongly until your own loose thread to pull at (gently). that changes. We can just about deal with the requests for help we get now (and we would stress the just Notes about). Any increase would tip us over and disappoint 1, ‘Antonio Téllez Solà, the Herodotus of the anti- people.’ [5] We know that failure is an option: Jessica Franco maquis’ by Stuart Christie in KSL: Bulletin of Moran asked in her survey of anarchist libraries: the Kate Sharpley Library No. 42, (May 2005) ‘What happens to these collections when those https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/m37qpw and currently involved in the projects no longer have the ‘Paul Avrich 1931-2006: a historian who listened to time, energy, or ability to be part of them? In darker anarchist voices’ in KSL No. 46-47, (July 2006) moments, I despair.’ [6] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/2z358c I think Stuart Christie’s Cienfuegos Press has been 2, Andre Prudhommeaux - Profile By Charles Jacquier an important influence on the Kate Sharpley Library. (Forgotten anarchists No.1) in KSL No. 6, (September Firstly, it shows what’s possible (and the Cienfuegos 1996) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/w6mb32 Press Anarchist Review has influence long after it 3, Mentioned as ‘planned’ in KSL No. 4 (1993) stops publishing). Secondly, the end of Cienfuegos https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/s1rpcs shows that you can only do so much on a shoestring 4, ‘Library news’ in KSL No. 1 [1991] (no matter how much energy you have). Finally, and https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/59zwr2 partly because the unpublished manuscripts of 5, ‘Twenty-Five Years of the Kate Sharpley Library!’ Cienfuegos formed an early part of the KSL, you’re in KSL No. 40, (November 2004) aware that there’s always more to do. https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wm38tp Looking back at the back issues, I can feel the effort 6, ‘To Spread the Revolution: Anarchist Archives and Inside: Anarchist lives special Double Issue Libraries’ in KSL No. 86-87, May 2016 Something should be done (by Peter Good) (On https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/7sqwg0. page 5-6) Originally published in Informed Agitation: Library Our Masters Are Helpless: The Essays of George and Information Skills in Social Justice Movements Barrett edited by Iain McKay (on page 13) and Beyond, edited by Melissa Morrone. (pages 173- 184) Sacramento, California : Library Juice Press, Help! 2014. ISBN 9781936117871. Finally, two requests: In 2020 it will be 100 years 7, ‘Anarchist History: confessions of an awkward since the birth of Albert Meltzer (British anarchist pupil’ by Barry Pateman in KSL No. 84, October and major influence on the construction of the Kate 2015 https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/02v7v0 ■ Sharpley Library). If any of you have letters/ postcards/ pictures from or about Albert we would love to hear from you. December 2019 message Then, if the new year sees you dissatisfied with how many solid gold reindeer are cluttering your from the Kate Sharpley mantelpiece, there is a page on our website for how to send donations to help the work of the KSL: Library https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/doc/donations We’d like to thank you, our friends, subscribers, We wish you all the best for 2020 readers and supporters of the Kate Sharpley Library Kate Sharpley Library collective ■ for your support in 2019. Particular thanks have to go the comrade who sent us historic copies of War Commentary and Freedom. We’ve put a handful of Mini-reviews: Biographies articles from these issues up for you to read: The J. Abrams Book: the life and work of an Spain – Commemoration of the 19th July exceptional personality [London, 1941] Jack Abrams was part of the New York Frayhayt ‘Although five years have passed since the group (with Mollie Steimer and others) and deported outbreak of the Civil War in Spain, very few people, to Soviet Russia for protesting against intervention. even now, appreciate the issues which were at stake The bulk of the book (and of great value) are his in the Spanish struggle.’ autobiographical writings. They cover his childhood https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/s7h5w0 and first years in the revolutionary movement in Books: The Russian Terror (Herbert Read reviews Russia, and his disillusion with the bolshevik system The Guillotine at Work) after his forced return. A series of tributes throw light ‘There are heroes in all sections of the on his life in exile in Mexico. Abrams was generous revolutionary struggle, but in Russia, as more enough to help even Leon Trotsky after his fall from recently in Spain, the martyrdom of our comrades is power, but also willing to point out where they an undying inspiration to all those who still work for differed ‘Comrade Trotsky[...] I agree with what you a true socialism based on freedom, equality and say about your former comrades when you condemn brotherhood.’ them. However, here’s where we part ways. I don’t https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/98sgnf agree that if you were in Stalin’s place, you would be The Internationale by Tom Brown [1942] better. Dictatorship has its own logic; perhaps you On the abuse of the working class anthem of revolt would be even worse.’ [p63] during the Second World War. First published just after his death, Ruth Murphy’s https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/2rbq46 translation from the Yiddish means this can (and Death of a good comrade [Daniel Mullen] From should) be much more widely read. the First World War to the Spanish Revolution (via 301 pages ISBN 9780997819007 the fight for Irish independence) (On page 3) D. Hunter Chav solidarity Bulletin Parts of it are hard to read (because they’re grim, not We haven’t managed to get a bulletin out before the because they’re incomprehensible): ‘We found ways new year. That’s really because we have too much to make it clear that, if we were gonna be fucked stuff rather than not enough. You can get a sense of with, we would not provide the lubricant.’ [p28] But what that does to you in ‘Looking back at the back it’s as thoughtful as it is angry: ‘All of this book, all issues’ [On the front page] of these essays are an attempt to communicate the idea that the people I grew up with are complicated Books and contradictory fuckers, with rich inner lives, as As always we have been thinking about books (not human as any other.’ [p239] It’s also a (self-)criticism all of them new). Here are a handful of recent of political movements: ‘All the criticism that I have reviews from our website: of these movements and all the vitriol that might Half A Million Tramps (by Bill Gape) (on page 12) pour out, I also aim at myself’.