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

Decades in the Struggle: Interviewing older anarchists

‘Decades in the Struggle’ is a project interviewing anarchist and anarchist-adjacent thinkers, writers, and activists (aged 60 and older, who are fluent in spoken English) in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and beyond. More details at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/hx3hg5.

Marking the life of Octavio Alberola

The KSL would like to mark the life of Octavio Alberola. News of his death came from Agustín Comotto: Death of Octavio Alberola (1928-2025) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/ksn258. We have posted an interview with him by Agustín Guillamón from November 2016 https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/c5b1t1. There's a review of his autobiography at Defeat and Revival : Thoughts on The Weight of the Stars [Book Review] https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/tqjs5z.

April 2025 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 117, April 2025 has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/69pb54. The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/80gd1j

Contents:
The ‘Finest library on Anarchy’ : Georges Pilotelle, Columbia University and anarchist print culture "there are things listed that seem worth looking at like the ‘Volume of Italian and Spanish anarchist periodical issues’, ‘a collection of socialistic and anarchistic ballads and songs in French and German’ and ‘Anarchistic pamphlets and posters in French, English, German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish, 1883-1896’." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wwq1v9

John Couzin – Seeker of Peace, Poet and Propagandist (1934-2025) by Stasia Rice "His big hearted love for everyone has left a deep impression upon us all and the memory of John Couzin’s own spirit of revolt will forever remain a source of inspiration in our lives." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v15h46

Obituary: Umberto Tommasini (1896-1980) "At the age of 74, in 1970, he repulsed a fascist attack on the group’s premises, chasing several of the attackers into the streets and seeing off several others." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/vx0nhx

Layabouts? by Albert Meltzer "The country is a “paradise for layabouts, crooks, gangsters and gamblers”. True, but we call them the Ruling Class.’" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/76hgm7

Piecing Together Anarchist History by Barry Pateman "Firstly, I think we should understand that fliers don’t just appear. They are often the result of careful thinking and planning and, of course, effort." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/q575vs

Library update (April 2025) [amongst other things] "Cover price has increased for the first time since 1991, for the obvious reason. Still happy to get donations from people who like what we do." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/66t392

The Police Computer Speaks by Richard Warren "this computer, being entirely logical, is infallible in its reasoning…" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/jh9z2q

Antoinette Cazal "Constance Bantman has just published a short piece on French anarchist Antoinette Cazal (1862-1902) who was acquitted in the ‘Trial of the Thirty’ (1894) and had ‘complicated romantic entanglements with Léon Ortiz’, who was convicted." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/s1rqjs

John Couzin (1934-2025)

We're sorry to report the death of John Couzin of Glasgow, among other things a poet, historian and stalwart of the Spirit of Revolt Archives of Dissent. We send our best wishes to his partner, family, friends and comrades.
We've posted the tribute John Couzin – Seeker of Peace, Poet and Propagandist (1934-2025) by his partner, Stasia Rice at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v15h46

December 2024 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 116, December 2024 has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4qrh89. The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/79cqdz

Contents:
Salvador Puig Antich: verdict overturned."After years of campaigning by his sisters, the Spanish government overturned the verdict on the 16th October 2024." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/7wm50k

Some recent additions by Barry Pateman "What it really should say is something like “some items that have just about made it to the catalogue – well nearly anyway!”" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/7h46cd

Licia Pinelli (1928-2024) by the Centro Studi Libertari / Archivio G. Pinelli "We will surely remember her great determination and extraordinary commitment throughout her life in the struggle for truth and justice – not only regarding the fate of her husband Pino Pinelli – that made her an outstanding figure in the history of twentieth-century Italy." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xgxgch

Anarchist Communist Memories of the Miners Strike [Pamphlet Review] "It’s good to have an anarchist communist view, and one from the potteries. Most importantly, this is history that means something: ‘What remains an enduring impact for me is the experience that class struggle changes people.'" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/qftwkm

[The Freedom Press Library in 1979: Plans and problems] "That we do want to have a working anarchist library no one can surely doubt seeing that we have never stopped adding contemporary material to it. But what form should an anarchist library take? What purpose should it serve? Who are the kind of people we should seek to attract? Indeed what kind of material should it house? And how should the material be classified?" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/z08p0j

Racism : knowing our enemies [1985] by Liverpool DAM "We must combat racism at all times. We know that NO-ONE is racially superior or more important. The real enemy are the bosses and their police." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/f1vkgv

Valerie Powels (1950-2011) "a Birmingham anarchist who wound up in Barcelona." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sf7p51

Remembering Kate Austin, Missouri anarchist & feminist "From the farm she shared with husband Sam in Missouri, Austin was an integral part of the anarchist movement and its press and took part in debates about anarchism, tactics, feminism and reproductive rights." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/s7h6bc

A Woman’s View of It by Kate Austin "If love is put in a cage, or fettered in any way, it is no longer love, but a ghastly nameless thing, that blasts the living and curses the unborn." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/gb5pgv

The Workers and the Strike by Kate Austin "No one need be discouraged over the war of contrary ideas, Agitation forces men to think; and human thought will in time kill government. But it is well to recognize all that the people must unlearn before they can question the all-powerful State. They, in common with their masters, consider property rights more sacred than life. As long as they do, they disarm themselves and arm their foes." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8933sk

Library Notes Dec. 2024 (only a fraction of what won't fit) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/mkkzmh

A workman is sitting on a tram... by Bernabé García Polanco "A workman is sitting on a tram in the 1930s reading a copy of Solidaridad Obrera when a priest takes a seat opposite him." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/qz637w