Administrative Information
Provenance
The Library of Congress purchased The M & S Collection of American Radical Extremist Literature of the 20th Century (also known as the M & S American Extremism Collection) from M & S Rare Books of Weston, Massachusetts, in late 1981.
Processing History
The collection was inventoried by David Sukites and Michael Coventry in 1991. Michael Coventry authored the scope and contents note. David Kennaly and David Sukites arranged the collection into series in 1993.
Related Material
In addition to the M & S Collection of American Radical Extremist Literature of the 20th Century, the Rare Book and Special Collections Division maintains several other important collections related to American radicalism. Firstly, the Anarchism Collection consists of more than 2,000 books and pamphlets by and about anarchists relating to anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism. Most pamphlets in the collection were published in the United States for French-, German-, Italian-, and Russian-speaking communities. A finding aid is available in the Rare Book Room for the use of this collection. Secondly is the House Un-American Activities Committee Collection. This collection contains 4,000 items covering a wide range of topics including: labor, communism, fascism, and neocolonialism were addressed by major figures in American communism and socialism. The publications in the collection are most extensive for the study of the American left. In addition, the Division the maintains Paul Avrich Collection of books, newspapers, pamphlets, recorded sound and video, and ephemera related to the study of anarchism in the 20th century as well as the Radical Pamphlet Collection , which includes Pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, broadsides, posters, cartoons, sheet music, and prints relating primarily to American communism, socialism, and anarchism from 1870 through 1980.
The Library keeps nearly complete runs of serials, such as American Mercury and Gerald L. K. Smith's The Cross and the Flag from both the Right and the Left. Many book and pamphlet titles by rightists and leftists are available in the general stacks as well.
The Manuscript Division of the Library maintains custody of the papers of many who figured prominently in American history during the period covered by the M & S Collection of American Radical Extremist Literature of the 20th Century. The papers of New Mexico Congressman James Clinton Anderson, Pennsylvania Congressman James Patrick McGranecy and his wife, Regina Clark McGranery, and Senator F. Green of Rhode Island, are particularly helpful for the study of anticommunism. Worthy of special note are the papers of Lawrence Edmund Spivak, publisher of American Mercury magazine during its left-leaning days. The Spivak papers contain materials from one of Spivak's later ventures, the Meet the Press broadcasts. These include viewer correspondence and radio and television transcripts of programs dealing with topics like the John Birch Society and anticommunism. For the study of the Left the Manuscript Division holds the papers of A. Philip Randolph, a Civil Rights leader, as well as a microfilm copy of the papers of the Socialist party in the United States (1897-1976). Finally, the Manuscript Division maintains the papers of Justice Earl Warren, prominent Supreme Court Justice during much of the Civil Rights era.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: The M & S Collection of American Radical Extremist Literature of the 20th Century, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.