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

September 2014 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 78-79, September 2014 [Double issue] has just been posted on our site. You can get to the contents here http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/cz8xhf or read the full pdf here http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/hmgrxw

This issue contains:
Salvador Gurucharri aka Salva, Comrade and Friend by Octavio Alberola http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9cnqbn
Antonio Martín Bellido, Madrid 1938-Paris August 17, 2014 by Stuart Christie http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/jq2d6w
No More Mimosa by Ethel Mannin: A re-consideration and appreciation http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sbcdk6
Ready for Revolution : The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938. [Book Review] by Edward McKenna http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/w0vvrq
The French Anarchists in London 1880-1914 (Constance Bantman); The Knights Errant of Anarchy (Pietro Di Paola) [Book Review] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bzkj7f
Library Notes (August 2014) http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v15gdf
Some Latin American Anarchist Women by Cristina Guzzo http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/69p9fc
Anarchists against World War One: Two little known events – Abertillery and Stockport by Nick Heath http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/p8d0px
Futures by John Barker [Book review] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wsts65

Remembering Spain by Marzocchi online

You can now read Umberto Marzocchi's account of his time in the anarchist militias on the Aragon front during the Spanish Civil War. This is the second edition, with a timeline of Marzocchi's life. Just scroll down past the description of the pamphlet at http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xgxf5b

Guillotine at Work second part available

Maximoff’s The Guillotine at Work is an essential source for looking at the history of the Russian anarchist movement after 1917. It was originally published by the The Chicago section of the Alexander Berkman Fund in 1940. The first half, which comprises the argument against Leninism, was reprinted by Cienfuegos Press (1979). Now a PDF of the second part of the book (documents about the repression of the anarchist movement) is freely available at libcom.org. You can get this essential primary source on Russian anarchism at: http://libcom.org/library/guillotine-work-part-2-data-documents

Read it and remember!

New: Ready for Revolution: The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938 by Agustín Guillamón

“Ready for Revolution” studies the origins and achievements of the anarchist Defence Committees who formed the backbone of resistance to the military coup of July 1936. After that, they reorganised life in the working class districts of Barcelona. “Ready for Revolution” also looks at how the revolutionaries were defeated, and the consequences.
It will make essential reading for those interested in Spanish anarchism, in the Spanish Civil War, or in anarchist ideas in practice.

Agustín Guillamón is an independent historian, editor of “Balance”, a magazine dedicated to new research on the Spanish Revolution, and the author of “The Friends of Durruti Group, 1937–1939” and “The Committees Revolution”.

“Ready for Revolution: The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938” by Agustin Guillamon, translated by Paul Sharkey, published by AK Press and the Kate Sharpley Library.
ISBN 9781849351423.
Copies available in the USA. $14.95
Due to be published in the UK: 3rd April 2014. £10.95
http://www.akpress.org/ready-for-revolution.html

Read the Kate Sharpley Library’s introduction to “Ready for revolution”:
http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/f4qsnb

Read “The CNT defense committees in Barcelona 1933–1938: An interview with Agustín Guillamón”:
http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/z61462

January/February 2014 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 77, January/February 2014 has just been posted on the site. You can get to the contents here http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/1zcsgp or read the full pdf here http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/z08n8s

This issue contains:
Florentine Lombard : a Kent anarchist and volunteer nurse during the Naples cholera epidemic of 1884. http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8kpstt
Library News: Ready for Revolution Published http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/b8gvp7
El Combate, October 1955 [front page only] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8sf8pr
2014 Bottled Wasp pocket diary http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/n02wkc
Wealth of negations, Terms and conditions: Management edition. (Selected highlights) http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/d51db7
Anarchism and Worker's Self Management in Revolutionary Spain By Frank Mintz [Book Review] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/w6mbmn
The Floodgates of Anarchy by Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer : some thoughts http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/c8680n
Pano Vassilev's 'The Soviets idea' - call for help  http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/g4f60x
Review: The Albert memorial: the anarchist life and times of Albert Meltzer (1920-1996) an appreciation by Phil Ruff http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/zgmtxr
Ghost dancers: the miners' last generation by David John Douglass [Book review] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v6wz71