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The Socialist League Leaflets and Manifestoes: An Annotated Checklist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Eugene D. Lemire
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From the formation of the Socialist League on December 30, 1884, until an anarchist take-over forced William Morris from the Common-weal editorship on May 25, 1890, the Council of the League gave a special importance to its pamphlet and leaflet publication. In Common-weal their significance was made quite explicit:

“The Manifesto of the League, the pamphlets in the ‘Socialist Platform’ series, the leaflets issued by the Council of the League, and articles definitely so stated in the 'Weal, are the only authoritative expositions of the League's creed and policy.”

After May 25, 1890, notions of “creed and policy” lost force, and – as some late publications show - it rapidly became impossible to identify any corporate responsibility.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , April 1977 , pp. 21 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1977

References

page 21 note 1 Commonweal, October 27, 1888.

page 21 note 2 There is an exception in the case of the League's Manifesto, which is often attributed solely to Morris but was in fact a joint effort of Morris and E. Belfort Bax, see The Letters of William Morris to His Family and Friends, ed. by Henderson, Philip (London, 1950), p. 229.Google Scholar The confusion arises because of a forged “first edition” of the Manifesto produced by Morris's bibliographer, H. Buxton Forman. This has a spurious wrapper on which appears “written by William Morris” in a very prominent position. See Forman's, H. Buxtonillustration in his The Books of William Morris (London, 1897), p. 115,Google Scholar and Graham Pollard's exposure of the forgery in his introduction to A Catalogue of Books and Pamphlets from the Library of Maurice Buxton Forman […] Offered for Sale by Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (London, 1973), p. 18.Google Scholar

page 22 note 1 Hereafter SLA. I am especially grateful to Miss M. W. H. Schreuder of the Institute for her help in tracking down several leaflets and publication information.

page 22 note 2 A complete run of this series can be consulted in the SLA.

page 28 note 1 See E. P. Thompson, op. cit., pp. 514, 562.

page 29 note 1 August 9, 1890, p. 256.

page 29 note 2 First advertised in Commonweal, July 11, 1891, p. 74.

page 29 note 3 Two of these – one signed by Thomas Bolas and titled Parliamentarianism in the Socialist League, and another by Joseph Lane headed To the Members of the Socialist League – are in the SLA. Others are mentioned by E. P. Thompson, op. cit., pp. 596, 598.