Kate Sharpley Library

From Kate Sharpley Library

Our comrade Barry Pateman died in hospital on Tuesday 22 September 2026 after a short illness. Barry supported many other projects from the Anarchist Black Cross to the Alexander Berkman Social Club but he was at the heart of the Kate Sharpley Library for 35 years. He described himself as an ‘awkward pupil’ of anarchist history but he helped to keep it alive and made it accessible to people from new generations. We are already missing him. A longer tribute will follow. We send love to his friends, family, and comrades.

From Kate Sharpley Library

Cuba has often been depicted as a theatre of ongoing revolutions and battles for freedom in which those martyred for social justice always align with the State authorities. Nothing could be further from the truth. From the mid-19th century up until the present, there has been a different left on the island, a libertarian left, an anarchist left that has always championed worker emancipation, self-management and freedom against any centralized authority.

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 121, August 2026 has just been posted on our site

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 120, April 2026 has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/c2fszv. The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/gqnnfr

From Kate Sharpley Library

The Kate Sharpley Library aims to preserve what anarchists have written (published or not) as an essential way to understand the ideas and history of the movement. To the best of our ability we try to make those things available, which leads into publishing. Which may be less librarianly, but has always has always been a concern of the KSL.

From Kate Sharpley Library

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 118, August 2025 has just been posted on our site

From Kate Sharpley Library, Alice Smith, & Incline Press

We’re sad to report the death of Graham Moss (1947-2025). He learnt printing at Freedom Press in the 1960s and was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. His friend Nick Heath told us more.

From Kate Sharpley Library
July 2025

‘Decades in the Struggle’ is a project interviewing anarchist and anarchist-adjacent thinkers, writers, and activists (aged 60 and older, who are fluent in spoken English) in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and beyond. It’s being coordinated by Nathan Jun of John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

From Kate Sharpley Library

Thanks to friends and supporters of the Kate Sharpley Library we recently managed to acquire a fascinating collection of mainly British anarchist ephemera ranging from the 1890s to the 1920s. It consists of fliers advertising meetings, leaflets explaining anarchism and fliers in support of anarchists and others who are in the hands of the state. There is also a collection of cards that advertise public meetings or act as tickets bought to attend those meetings. There is more (songs, poetry, etc. etc.).

From Kate Sharpley Library

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 117, April 2025 has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/69pb54. The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/80gd1j