Scope and Content Note
Dr. Paul Avrich, Distinguished Professor of History at Queens College, City University of New York, began donating his collection of anarchist books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts, audio and video cassettes, and ephemera to the Library of Congress in 1986. This original collection started out with seven series: manuscripts, secondary literature, serials, pamphlets and ephemera and non-print media and books.
The original Series I. Manuscripts consist of personal and organization papers arranged alphabetically by individual or group name. Virtually every prominent American anarchist is represented in some way.
The Paul Avrich anarchism collection features much material on Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, perhaps the two most famous American anarchists. Both corresponded with Minna Lowensohn, and these exchanges illuminate their travels, careers, and later years. Some rare Emma Goldman pamphlets are also present.
Mollie Steimer was a participant in the Abrams case, a low point in American civil liberties and free speech. Many parts of the collection have materials related to her. Her vigorous spirit is especially notable in her lengthy correspondence with Clara Larsen
The collection also contains typescripts and manuscripts of three major anarchist writers and historians, Rudolf Rocker, Max Nettlau, and Max Nomad.
Anarchism is an especially literate philosophy, and the collection includes much material related to anarchist publications. The records of the Libertarian Book Club span the years 1945-85, and are especially strong in both the early 1960s and early 1970s. These records reveal the detailed operations of this long-lived group, and have been arranged by year, and then according to content and type. Individual and general correspondence, filed alphabetically, consists of correspondence between the LBC and authors series, editors, publishers, lecturers, and comrades in anarchism, including such figures as Mollie Steimer, Noam Chomsky, and James J. Martin. Correspondence, orders and requests, documents the public business activities of the LBC, and consists of purchase orders, invoices, receipts, and requests for books, catalogs, or other information. Orders and requests are not arranged beyond year. Organizati76, 76a-con records consist of announcements to members, meeting minutes, financial statements, items related to picnics, luncheons, parties, and fundraisers, and information on the LBC lecture series. The LBC also received many announcements, catalogs, and miscellaneous anarchist items, and these may be found as Printed matter, which also includes the LBC's own catalogs.
The papers of Ahrne Thorne are also valuable for the history of the anarchist press. Thorne was the last editor of the Freie Arbeiter Stimme, a Yiddish anarchist newspaper that ran for 87 years, ceasing publication in 1977. Thorne, who died in 1985, was a prolific correspondent, and his papers from his post F.A.S. days contain letters from longtime anarchist friends, young people interested in his life, and scholars seeking information on Thorne and his many acquaintances.
The development of colonies and schools was another major anarchist endeavor. The Mohegan Colony in Crompond, N.Y. and the Stelton, N.J. colony were the two largest and most successful efforts to found anarchist communities. The papers of Mohegan Colony founder Harry Kelly document his long and active career. Of note is his lengthy unpublished autobiography, "Roll Back the Years." In addition to the records listed under Mohegan Colony, the collection includes materials from several Mohegan residents, including Rudolf Rocker and Jacques Rudome, which also illuminate the colony's life.
Tensions within the Mohegan Colony are also documented, such as clashes with communists and legal wranglings over beach use. Other colonies and schools represented in the Paul Avrich anarchism collectionn include the Stelton Modern School and its beloved administrators, Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm, and the Sunrise Co-operative Farm Community in Michigan.
The collection also includes anarchist emphera, arranged by item type. Of note are the large holdings of international book catalogs and calendars. Anarchist buttons, bumper stickers, and T-shirts point to the diverse ways of propagating anarchist ideas. Much of this material is oversize including an anarchist syndicalist flag, divided black and red diagonally and used during Vietnam War protest marches. Emma Goldman coffee mugs and additional posters were added in 2006.