Sir
Victor Gollancz (1893-1967), publisher, John Strachey (d. 1963), politician
and writer, and Harold Laski, political scientist, (d. 1950) founded the Left
Book Club in 1936 to publish a series
of books on resistance to fascism, the threat of war and its prevention,
and socialism as a cure for poverty. The Club issued 259 books from
1936 to 1948. Many were written by prominent authors such as Arthur Koestler,
George Orwell, Edgar Snow and John Strachey.
On the eve of World War II in 1939 there were 57,000 members and 1,500 Left
Discussion Groups in the Club. But with the end of the war, membership
fell drastically until 1948 when Victor Gollancz announced the closing of
the Club.
The Library possesses a nearly complete
collection of Left
Book Club publications. The list of cataloged holdings is found
on the Library catalog under the title heading Left Book
Club.
Sources: John Lewis. The Left Book Club. 1970. Encyclopedia
Britannica,
online edition.
Related materials in Special Collections:
Century of Change Collection
(Guernsey Collection) on British History and Politics
