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Left Book Club
‐
Left-wing publishing group
Location(s)
London
WC2E 8PW
United Kingdom
About
The Left Book Club was established in the context of the rise of Fascism in Europe and the economic depression, when the need for the dissemination of left-wing politics was keenly felt among British intellectuals. It was an immediate success on its establishment, with 6,000 subscriptions after a month and a membership of 40,000 by the end of its first year. With links to the Communist Party of Great Britain, the LBC was explicit in its advocacy of a left-wing politics. It published books on a wide range of subjects, ‘from farming to Freud to air-raid shelters to Indian independence’ (Laity, p. ix), aiming for accessibility and education. The titles, many of which were newly commissioned, were sold to LBC members at discounted prices. Despite its attempts to bring politics and literature to working-class people, its activists were largely privileged men and women. The LBC organized summer schools and trips (including to the Soviet Union) and held lectures and rallies focused on political events such as the Spanish Civil War, with members also hosting local meetings to discuss the books.
Clearly espousing an anti-imperial stance, the LBC published books by Rajani Palme Dutt and Ayana Angadi, as well as by Santha Rama Rau and Bhabani Bhattacharya. In late 1936 authorities in India began to intercept Left Book Club books despatched (via the Phoenix Book Company) to members in India on the grounds that they contained ‘extremist propaganda’, and the India Office requested reports on the LBC’s activities. Evidence suggests that there were LBC Indian student discussion groups (such as the one formed by Promode Ranjan Sen Gupta, who was under government surveillance), and later an Indian branch of the LBC, and that these groups attempted to subvert the censorship of LBC material in India. Further, in late 1937 there is evidence that Victor Gollancz, supported by Nehru, was attempting to start a Left Book Club in India in order to circumvent the ban (L/PJ/12/504, pp. 8, 10–11, 18–19).
LBC national rally, Royal Albert Hall, London, February 1937
Conference on civil liberties in India, London, 17 October 1937
Emile Burns (on selection committee), Rajani Palme Dutt (on the LBC panel of speakers), Victor Gollancz (founder and publisher), Harold Laski (commissioning editor), Sheila Lynd (worked for LBC), Betty Reid (worked for LBC), John Strachey (instrumental in foundation of Club and commissioning editor).
Ayana Angadi (Jaya Deva) (his Japan’s Kampf was an LBC book), Bhabani Bhattacharya (his So Many Hungers! was an LBC book), Miss Bonnerji (Indian branch of the LBC), Amiya Bose (Indian branch of the LBC), Ben Bradley, Stafford Cripps (instrumental in foundation of Club), Dharam Yash Dev (wrote a letter in the 22/5/37 issue of Time and Tide protesting against the Government of India censorship of LBC books), Promode Ranjan Sen Gupta (organized a Left Book Club discussion group for Indian students in London), Mahmud-us-Zaffar Khan (Nehru’s personal secretary – liaised with Gollancz in relation to his attempt to set up an LBC in India), Cecil Day Lewis (spoke at LBC meetings), Jawaharlal Nehru (supported Gollancz’s attempts to set up an LBC in India), George Orwell (his The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia were LBC books), Sylvia Pankhurst (spoke at LBC meetings), Santha Rama Rau (her Home to India was an LBC book), Paul Robeson (spoke at LBC meetings), Ellen Wilkinson (supporter of the LBC).
Communist Party of Great Britain, National Council for Civil Liberties, Phoenix Book Company.
There were LBC editions of over 200 works. These include:
Cripps, Stafford, The Struggle for Peace (1936)
Dutt, R. Palme, World Politics, 1918–36 (1936)
Strachey, John, The Theory and Practice of Socialism (1936)
Attlee, Clement, The Labour Party in Perspective (1937)
Cole, G. D. H., The People’s Front (1937)
Horrabin, J. F., An Atlas of Empire (1937)
Orwell, George, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
Snow, Edgar, Red Star Over China (1937)
Spender, Stephen, Forward from Liberalism (1937)
Webb, Sidney and Webb, Beatrice, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization (1937)
Brailsford, H. N., Why Capitalism Means War (1938)
Mulgan, John (ed.) Poems of Freedom (1938)
Barnes, Leonard, Empire or Democracy? A Study of the Colonial Question (1939)
Burns, Emile, What Is Marxism? (1939)
Woolf, Leonard, Barbarians at the Gate (1939)
Dutt, R. Palme, India Today (1940)
Strachey, John, Federalism or Socialism? (1940)
Gollancz, Victor (ed.) The Betrayal of the Left (1941)
Koestler, Arthur, Scum of the Earth (1941)
Deva, Jaya (Ayana Angadi) Japan’s Kampf (1942)
Brailsford, H. N., Subject India (1943)
Marquard, Leopold, The Black Man’s Burden (1943)
Laski, Harold, Faith, Reason and Civilisation (1944)
Russell, A. G., Colour, Race and Empire (1944)
Rao, Santha Rama, Home to India (1945)
Brockway, Fenner, German Diary (1946)
de Palencia, Isabel, Smouldering Freedom: The Story of the Spanish Republicans in Exile (1946)
Bhattacharya, Bhabani, So Many Hungers! (1947)
Monthly journal: Left News
Dudley Edwards, Ruth, Victor Gollancz: A Biography (London: Victor Gollancz, 1987)
Hodges, Sheila, Gollancz: The Story of a Publishing House, 1928–78 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1978)
Laity, Paul (ed.) Left Book Club Anthology (London: Victor Gollancz, 2001)
Lewis, John, The Left Book Club: An Historical Record (London: Victor Gollancz, 1970)
L/PJ/12/504, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
Papers of Sir Victor Gollancz, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
A Left Book Club Discussion Group has been formed in London for Indian students, with Promode Ranjan SEN GUPTA, 7, Woburn Buildings, W.C., as secretary.
In this connection it may be stated that in the 22.5.37 issue of 'Time and Tide' there was published a letter from Dharam Yash DEV. In it he protested against the censorship of books exercised by the Government of India, with particular reference to Left Book Club literature. He contended that books not normally banned in India are seized by Customs when they are imported in the L.B.C. edition.
L/PJ/12/504, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, p. 8
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
