Left Book Club
The Left Book Club (LBC Book Club of the Left) was a center founded in 1936 British Book Club whose efforts to impart knowledge, useful in the fight for world peace and against fascism , is symbolically in John Stacheys book title Why You Should Be a Socialist (Why You should be a socialist). The emergence of discussion groups, which went hand in hand with the unexpectedly strong sales of books, made the LBC the largest British political movement striving for the formation of a popular front in a short time , only to fall back even faster with the Hitler-Stalin Pact into relative insignificance and there until it was dissolved To remain in 1948.
Books at a third of the normal price
The Left Book Club was supplied by Victor Gollancz Ltd. Whose owner "VG" (so named by its employees) while attempting a book that addressed the integration of trade and politics to bring to the market, had to realize that, at best, one percent of the book trade was ready with socialism in conjunction to take things to be brought into the range. Nevertheless, it was the bookstore - some of the newly established "left-wing" bookstores - that contributed to the secure system: a third of the sales price as dealers' commission and inexpensive paperback books for which there were calculable quantities through subscription contracts . Gollancz was considered a sales genius, accurate in the selection of titles and in the design of the LBC-typical, orange, flexible covers. A half-crown book had to be removed every month - normally. The book club - or more precisely Victor Gollancz, who was always in control - adapted to the needs of customers with an abundance of membership forms: purchase of six or four volumes per year, or a form to which the Weekly Tribune was added. Membership as an “associate” for low-wage earners or the unemployed was less well received - the majority were those with a fixed salary or freelancers in the LBC. In line with the club's concern of providing information related to current affairs, mainly new publications were printed, some of which were specially commissioned and mostly of a political nature. The selection committee consisting of Victor Gollancz, John Strachey and Harold Laski decided what came into consideration .
The books themselves
Approximately 250 titles were published in the Left Book Club, launched in May 1936, France Today and The People's Front (France today and the Popular Front ) of Maurice Thorez , head of the French Communist Party . With this, however, a development began, about which Gollancz said in retrospect that “the influence of the communists on the book club was far greater than it should have been if it could have been avoided at all”. The problem of “not hiding anything about the Soviet Union ” without harming the movement had not been addressed in a timely manner. John Lewis - the LBC organizer of the discussion groups - pointed out, however, that there were indeed very few Communists among the authors, with no books with an openly misleading statement, such as Dudley Collard's Soviet Justice and the Trial of Radek and Others (Soviet Justice and the Trial against Radek and others ) to want to justify.
Communist in the public eye, but never a party member, John Strachey was next to Gollancz the main intellectual figure of the LBC, the skilful explainer. Among the seven books he contributed, Coming Struggle for Power was considered to be the most influential work on Marxism by the English left . Equally remarkable was a treatise the length of half a novel, 30,000 words, 100 pages, for which “VG ” calculated a sales price of “ Twopence ” if it could sell 100,000 copies. The chances seemed good to him with this "little masterpiece - crystal clear, not requiring the slightest knowledge of politics, economics and history to understand". The "Twopenny Strachey" Why You Should Be a Socialist found 250,000 buyers within a year.
With the book The Nazi Conspiracy in Spain , written by the communist Otto Katz , a series of “Topical books” was introduced in January 1937, the content of which was seen as so important that instead of the book trade, one could buy Post sales chose. The Spanish Civil War became the dominant theme and the LBC led the Republican cause support scene in Britain. Arthur Koestler helped his Spanish Testament to break through as a writer thanks to LBC , but George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia ( My Catalonia ) was rejected and was published by another publisher. A commissioned work was his Road to Wigan Pier ( The way to Wigan Pier ), which had already led to resentment between the book club and the Communist Party (CP).
Ellen Wilkinson also took up the topic of “emergency areas” with The Town that was Murdered and described the dramatic effects of mass unemployment using the specific example of the northern English city of Jarrow . What in the days of the " seizure of power took place" in Germany, lighted January Petersen's Our Street ( Our Road ), Aurel Kolnai in July 1939 published War Against the West (war against the West) was by Gollancz as "the most important book of Club has published ”, denotes and described the mishmash of“ philosophies ”to the blood-and-soil ideology .
After the Hitler-Stalin Pact , Walter Ulbricht wrote an article "in which he compared British imperialism to its disadvantage with Hitlerism", Gollancz and friends countered this in February 1941 with their The Betrayal of the Left , the communist one Influence on the LBC came to an end. Books of an unorthodox Marxist character, such as Rosa Luxemburg: Her Life and Work (Rosa Luxemburg. Thought and Action) by Paul Frölich , were also printed . Gollancz criticized all forms of dictatorship in July 1946 with Our Threatened Values , the last volume published was The Meaning of Marxism by GDH Cole , with eight works the most printed author in the LBC.
The LBC and the UK public
Formation of discussion groups
The Left Book Club reached its peak of interest in April 1939 with 57,000 members, and an initially unpredictable side effect was the emergence of up to 1,000 discussion groups. In response to the first published volume, five subscribers expressed the wish for a discussion with other interested parties about the questions raised in the “Book of the Month”. They found their names in the next announcement sheet, Left Book News, and became the first “conveners” of discussion groups. These meetings were open to everyone and originally came from apolitical people who were roused by the elimination of the constitutional government in Spain or the persistent poverty in the British emergency areas - the days of indifference were over when no one could be attracted to such meetings. John Lewis was the organizer of these groups in the autumn of 1936, Gollancz provided the entire floor of an office building in London's Henrietta Street 17-18. Five area organizers had to deal with the considerable correspondence. A 64-page guidebook, a Group Handbook, was published in 1939 with suggestions for weekend seminars, instructions for holding meetings, and advice on public relations. According to the size of the movement, permanent LBC rooms and centers were set up. 200 registered members stood behind the fully equipped “ Leeds Center” with library, small stage, kitchen and meeting rooms. With all this: The LBC did not feel responsible for the political steps to bring about a "popular front", rather it wanted to give its members a basis of factual knowledge (the considerable part of later regretted propaganda ignored), on which their political activities would be based can build. Those who wanted to get active were advised to join a party from which the CP benefited, but the Labor Party even more .
Lecture events
When Victor Gollancz got together with a discussion group, he basically gave a well-prepared, short speech, which soon turned into panel discussions , a "traveling stage" for politically prominent people, which helped "VG" to appear nationwide. The publisher provided books and speakers as well as their tours, while the groups took care of event rooms. The house was already full in February 1937 at the " Albert Hall Rally", Gollancz wrote about an event with David Lloyd George in 1939 that it was the largest of all, "in the Empress Stadium, twenty-three thousand were in the hall, almost as many, or this is what it looked like, out on the street ”. A press response to such events (John Lewis only wanted to know about 11,000 people in the Empress Hall) was barely audible, although no censorship, but an " appeasement " -promoting self-restriction. Gollancz, however, continued to act for a treaty between the three powers Russia, France and Great Britain, by means of which Hitler would be deterred. In the same year George Orwell devoted half a chapter in his book Coming Up for Air to a satirical report on an LBC lecture evening in a cold, poorly lit hall :
- “The usual crowd of fifteen or sixteen people had turned up. At the front of the stage a yellow notice announced that it was a lecture on 'The Impending Danger of Fascism'. […] Our little group sat in the light around the stage, with about thirty rows of empty chairs behind us. "
Amateur Theater "Left Book Club Theater Guild"
If a stage was available, a lecture evening with a one-act play performed by the LBC Theater Guild could become more attractive. The director John Allen had a full-time job organizing the 250 branches of this amateur theater, founded in April 1937 . The "Guild" worked closely with the Unity Theater (UT) - the name said it all and stood for the desired unity of Labor and CP - in which Gollancz and Laski were members of the "General Council", whose "Management Committee" - In return, President André van Gyseghem belonged to the “Professional Actors' Group” of the LBC. The LBCTG performed pieces such as Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets or Where's that Bomb by Herbert Hodge . A forerunner of these groups was the Workers 'Theater Movement (WTM, Workers' Theater Movement 1926-35), which failed not least because of its entanglement with the communist " social fascism " agitation. Since the attempts of the WTM had remained ineffective and isolated like their groups, the “Guild”, following the example of the LBC, paid attention to constant contact with the labor movement. Organizational details such as a “statute” were now taken seriously and based on those of the UT. Conversely, they helped convert St. Pancras into the UT's new home on London's Goldington Street. Joining the British Drama League, the largest association of amateur theaters in Great Britain, was a success, not only in its two and a half years of existence, but for the country's socialist amateur theater in general. The British theater tradition was not rejected in its entirety, despite the rejection of contemporary bourgeois theater. The beginning of the war with its drafts and evacuations then brought the quick end for average groups of 15 to 20 members with a withdrawal of 5 to 6 actors.
Actually friends - LBC and Labor
In the days of the founding of the LBC, the “National Government” hardly felt any opposition from the Labor Party, which had seemed paralyzed since the 1931 election defeat. A political awakening that suddenly provided a new impetus in sleepy local clubs could only be welcome - CR Attlee sent the "Albert Hall Rally" friendly words in early 1937. Continuing tensions between "Henrietta Street" and " Transport House " (the Labor Party headquarters at the time) soon arose from the fact that Labor had banished issues such as the " United Front " or "Popular Front" while they were close to the heart of the LBC. The party leadership took a public position in the press against the club, party members with LBC subscriptions were threatened with exclusion and their own “Labor Book Service” was initiated. Just as the threat was a step too far, the “Book Service” turned out to be a flop. Nothing could prevent the LBC from taking the position previously held by the Fabian Society and giving the impetus that soon found expression in a predominantly “left” opinion among the armed forces and won the election in 1945 - for Labor.
Left News - more than a members' magazine
From the beginning, the “Book of the Month” was accompanied by a Left Book News sheet , with information on upcoming offers, which in December 1936 became the Left News . To this end, Gollancz wrote an editorial - just as an exception, in his opinion - it became a permanent fixture alongside the book reviews often written by Harold Laski and John Strachey's Topic of the Month . Non-members could subscribe to the magazine for 3 seconds in the half-year. As the number of discussion groups skyrocketed, Left News grew from 15 to 30 pages in a year, filled with organizational announcements. A lot of space was given to benevolent reports on the situation in the Soviet Union, and even a summary of the “Stalin Constitution” was printed. In September 1938 the magazine was 40 pages long and had twice as much material as what was published. On top of that, Gollancz saw it as a lack of being able to react to current topics only once a month and sounded out the chances of success for a weekly newspaper that should be more than “just another newspaper”. It became the Tribune with “VG” on the editorial board.
If the LBC was also “one of the first British organizations to undertake a systematic attack on fascism”, for which Gollancz saw “hatred not only of ideas, but also of people” as a hallmark, for him it was true: “But if I do I hate fascism, I don't hate the fascists ”. In the article Thoughts after Munich (thought to Munich, Left News , Nov. 1938) recapitulated Gollancz noticed the intentions of the LBC and about being "in the passionate belief in certain ideas", "too much of a propagandist and not enough of an educator", have become concentrates “too much (if not exclusively) on two or three points of view” and “publishes very few books by liberals”. Gollancz quoted the "Nazi Doctrine of Propaganda", according to which it "must not objectively research the truth as well, as far as it is favorable to others, in order to then present it to the masses in doctrinal sincerity, but continuously serve its own" and put the Opposite the Left Book Club's position: "We must not have anything to do with such methods." The club should not indulge in the idea "that 'the end justifies the means'".
There was enough cause for controversy from September 1939: Gollancz and Laski advocated Britain's war against Nazi Germany as the only means of eliminating Hitler, Strachey initially rejected it, if only because of the risk of expansion to the Soviet Union. The LBC, whose original aim was to prevent war, now had a heated debate, and Gollancz could only avoid the total breakdown by announcing that he would print highly provocative and controversial articles on all subjects except the question of war. The Left News began to gain in importance compared to book sales and received a 12-page supplement with the International Socialist Forum , the editor-in-chief of which was the Austrian socialist Julius Braunthal . This was also the significance of the LBC in the war years as a journalistic agency for socialists in exile from the continent. The Left News was last published in March 1947.
cause and effect
Victor Gollancz was with the accession of the Nazis the war danger so palpable that he immediately bought a country house in Brimpton (in which he after the war began a greatly scaled-down version of its publishing housed). Neville Chamberlain talked about "the distant lands we know nothing about," and "VG" was like no other to ensure that these gaps in knowledge were closed - at least among LBC members. What remained was an enrichment of the common English vocabulary with terms such as “ full employment ”, “ socialized health care ”, “ urban planning ” or “social equality”.
proof
- Victor Gollancz: My dear Timothy. An autobiographical letter to my grandson ( My Dear Timothy and More for Timothy , London 1952 and 1953), trans. von Lutz Weltmann, Sigbert Mohn Verlag, Gütersloh 1960, pp. 976–1005
- Stuart Samuels: The "Left Book Club" , translated from English. v. Matthias Büttner. In: Walter Laqueur u. George L. Mosse (ed.): Left-wing intellectuals between the two world wars , Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1969, pp. 96–126
- John Lewis: The Left Book Club. An historical record . Foreword Margaret Cole . Victor Gollancz Limited, London 1970, ISBN 0-575-00586-6
- Reiner Lehberger : The socialist theater in England from 1934 to the outbreak of the Second World War. Studies on the history and program activities of the "Left Theater", "Unity Theater" and the "Left Book Club Theater Guild" , Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, ISBN 3-261-02941-4
Individual evidence
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 971
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 19
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 81
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 978
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 107
- ↑ Sonia Orwell et al. Ian Angus: The Collected Essays. Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Volume I . London 1969, p. 218
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 96
- ^ S. Samuels: The "Left Book Club" . Munich 1969, p. 117
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 91
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 1003
- ↑ J. Lewis. The Left Book Club . London 1979, p. 14
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 63
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club , London 1970, p. 46
- ^ S. Samuels: the "Left Book Club" , Munich 1969, p. 112
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 1002
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 102
- ↑ (“The usual crowd of fifteen or sixteen people had rolled up. On the front of the platform there was a yellow placard announcing that the lecture was on 'The Menace of Fascism'. […] The little knot of us were sitting in the light round the platform, with about thirty rows of empty chairs behind us. ") George Orwel: Coming Up for Air , London 1939 (reprint 1973), p. 146 f.
- ^ S. Samuels: The "Left Book Club" . Munich 1969, p. 109
- ^ R. Lehberger: The socialist theater in England . Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, p. 99
- ^ R. Lehberger: The socialist theater in England . Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, p. 97
- ^ R. Lehberger: The socialist theater in England . Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, p. 194
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 47
- ^ R. Lehberger: The socialist theater in England . Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, p. 196
- ^ R. Lehberger: The socialist theater in England . Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, p. 207
- ^ R. Lehberger: The socialist theater in England . Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, p. 202
- ^ S. Samuels: The "Left Book Club" . Munich 1969, p. 124
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 125
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 23 and 39 f.
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 69
- ^ S. Samuels: The "Left Book Club" . Munich 1969, p. 100
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 994
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 991
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 992
- ^ V. Gollancz: My dear Timothy . Gütersloh 1960, p. 993
- ^ J. Lewis: The Left Book Club . London 1970, p. 126
- ^ S. Samuels: The "Left Book Club" . Munich 1969, p. 123