The Kate Sharpley Library (or KSL) is a library dedicated to

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

texts and history. Started in 1979 and reorganized in 1991, it currently holds around ten thousand English language volumes, pamphlets and periodicals. __NOTOC__

Namesake

The Kate Sharpley Library was named after a Deptford-born

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

anarchist and anti-war activist. She worked in a munitions factory and was active in the shop stewards movement. Her brother William Sharpley and her father were killed in action and her boyfriend was listed as missing believed killed (though she suspected he had been shot for mutiny). At the age of 22, when called to receive her family's medals from Queen Mary she threw the medals back at the Queen, saying "if you like them so much you can have them". The Queen's face was scratched, Kate Sharpley was beaten by police, and imprisoned for a few days, though no charges were brought against her. She did however lose her job. After marrying in 1922, she dropped out of anarchist activities until a chance encounter with

Albert Meltzer Albert Isidore Meltzer (7 January 1920 – 7 May 1996) was an English anarcho-communist activist and writer. Early life Meltzer was born in Hackney, London, of Jewish ancestry, and educated at The Latymer School, Edmonton. He was attracted ...

at a train station during an

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

action. This led to her meeting many younger activists and so, when

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th centu ...

anarchists came to name the archives they had collected from the movement, her name was chosen in preference to a more famous one.

Holdings

The library has texts in English and other languages, near complete collections of several anarchist newspapers, and collections of reports and literature from various anarchist organisations. The library is maintained by donations and money made from sales of pamphlets and other publications. As of 2014 it was receiving one or two in-person visits per month and the bulk of the research requests arrived by email.

Locations

The library was begun in the squatted

121 Centre 121 Centre was a squatted self-managed social centre on Railton Road in Brixton, south London from 1981 until 1999. As an anarchist social centre, the venue hosted a bookshop, cafe, infoshop, library, meeting space, office space, printing fac ...

in Brixton, London in 1979 by a collective which included

. It had both lending and reference sections. When the centre was raided in 1984, the archive was moved to a different squat for safety. When the library was moved to the safety of Barry Pateman's home in 1991, the focus shifted towards being a special collection and archive. After being located in Northampton between 1991 and 1999, the library was moved again, this time to a renovated barn at the home of Barry Pateman and Jessica Moran in California.

Publications

As well as preserving the physical artifacts of anarchist history, the library also publishes books and

pamphlets A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a f ...

on anarchism and anarchist history, covering many subjects that would otherwise be forgotten. Its activities are recounted in its regular Bulletin, available online and by mail to its financial supporters. Authors it has published or re-published include Miguel Garcia,

, David Nicoll,

Abel Paz Abel Paz (1921–2009) was a Spanish anarchist and historian who fought in the Spanish Civil War. He is considered one of the noted Spanish anarchist historians, writing multiple volumes on anarchist history, including a biography of Buenaventur ...

, Antonio Téllez, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

References

External links