During the 1930s Europe suffered a state of unease. Due to tragic events such as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the gradual spread of Hitler's Nazi policies from 1933 onwards, morale in European countries decreased with dramatic speed.
George Orwell argued that England – as a dominant European country – had fallen into a “deep, deep sleep . . . from which I sometimes fear that we shall never wake till we are jerked out of it by the roar of bombs” (187). To be sure, many individuals believed that England – indeed, the whole of the world – was in dire jeopardy of becoming subject to the tyrannies of Fascism. It is within this climate that the Left Book Club emerged.
Conception
Victor Gollancz created the Left Book Club in January of 1936. The aim of the Club was to “revitalize and educate the British left” in order to face the looming atrocities of Fascism (Laity ix). Fear of war was a universal concern in England during the thirties. In light of this nervousness the continued aim of the group was “To help in the terribly urgent struggle for World Peace and against Fascism by giving to all who are determined to play their part in this struggle such knowledge as well as immensely increase their efficiency” (Lewis 12). Increasing the efficiency of the left via educational literature was a novel concept. The production of the Left Book Club would also result in a united and productive response against a common enemy. Indeed, the Club successfully rallied together supporters of the “Labour and Liberal Parties, trade unions, the Socialist League, the ILP, and the Communist Party” (Samuels 68). Combining like-minded groups under a universal aim provoked an effort to bring a Popular Front – as seen successfully in France and Spain – into existence. However, due to the tenuous connections between the various groups, a Popular Front never manifested in England.
Production
Regardless, the Left Book Club still managed to withhold its original aim: to “revitalize and educate the British left” via a monthly subscription of 2s 6d (Laity ix-x). Members were “committed to buying a designated title . . . every month, for a minimum of six months” (Laity x). These titles offered a broad spectrum of leftist opinion, becoming characterised by their orange binding and somewhat elitist cover-statement: “Not for sale to the general public.” The texts varied from Communist manifestos to idolizations of the Soviet Union, with many books offering prophecies of a Socialist working-class government coming into power. Subscribers were also provided with a copy of the Left Book Club News and a monthly periodical. Stuart Samuels, in his 1966 essay “The Left Book Club,” documents the impressive sale statistics of the LBC. Samuels writes: “After only one month, the Club's membership had passed 6,000. By the end of the first year over 40,000 members had joined, and in June 1936, Gollancz was talking in terms of 100,000. This forecast was unduly optimistic, but, nevertheless, the Club's membership by April 1939 had reached 57,000. Its readership, moreover, was estimated at a quarter of a million people”(67). The impressive spread of the Left Book Club was undoubtedly due to the numerous avenues that its readership pursued.
Application
Group meetings were soon organized – perhaps due to Gollancz's call to “convert laziness and indifference into active enthusiasm” (Laity xx) – as a weekly response to Franco's 1937 rebellion in Spain. These meetings brought together members from oppositional left groups who would then work together in order to help Spain: some groups adopted Basque children, others constructed motorbike ambulances; moreover, fund-raising knit-ins were organised, the intention being to send food ships to those suffering in Spain. The number of Left Book Club groups in each country increased with speed. Indeed, groups even spread oversees.
It is clear that the Left Book Club no longer confined itself to literature. Samuels writes: “While its enemies remained the same throughout the thirties, the Club varied its methods of attack. At first it concentrated on enlightening its members, but in time these found it impossible to read and talk about current politics and yet do nothing about it” (80). Summer schools were run in “distressed areas” so that the middle-classes could get a taster of the people for whom they were fighting (Laity xxv). Moreover, film and professional actors' groups also emerged.
Disbandment
Upon the outbreak of war in 1939 the dominating influence of the Left Book Club began to subside. This was largely due to Nazi-Soviet Pact, signed 23 August 1939, that caused a great rift within the Communist Party and the remaining left groups. Russia had previously symbolised all that was good about the left cause; no doubt, the nation was often idealized by LBC literature and its followers. The so-called betrayal of the USSR and the subsequent declaration of war demanded an immediate response from the LBC leader. Gollancz needed to decide what course of action the Left Book Club would take in light of these tragic events. Gollancz supported the war. In his opinion it was an anti-fascist war and therefore shared the concerns of the the LBC. Many people on the left disagreed with Gollancz. Numerous group meetings were transformed into “Stop-the-war” committees, directly opposing the wishes of the LBC's leader. To quote the Left Book Club Anthologist, Paul Laity, “The valiant days of the Left Book Club were over” (xxx). The group dissolved in 1948.
Sources
Laity, Paul. Introduction. Left Book Club Anthology. Ed. Paul Laity. London: The Spartan Press Ltd., 2001. Print.
Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia. 1938. London: Penguin Group, 2000. Print.
Samuels, Stuart. “The Left Book Club.” Journal of Contemporary History. 1.2 (1966): 65-86. Web. 6 July 2010.
Mark Yates - I am an avid book-reader, film-watcher, and music listener. Consequently, my articles primarily focus upon these three topics. My ...
