Left Book Club
Logo for the Left Book Club
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| Founded | 1936 |
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| Founder | Victor Gollancz |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | London |
| Distribution | Pluto Press |
| Publication types | Books |
| Nonfiction topics | "A full range of progressive traditions, perspectives and ideas" |
| Official website | http://www.leftbookclub.com |
The Left Book Club was a publishing group that exerted a strong far-left influence in Great Britain from 1936 to 1948. Historian Michael Newman says:
Pioneered by Victor Gollancz, it offered a monthly book choice, for sale to members only, as well as a newsletter that acquired the status of a major political magazine. It also held an annual rally. Membership peaked at 57,000, but after the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression pact of 1939, it disowned its large Communist element, and subsequent years of paper-rationing, during and after the war, led to further decline. It ceased publishing in 1948.
An attempt to relaunch the group in the early 2000s stalled, but after some delays, in 2015 the first publications under the new Left Book Club name appeared.
The Left Book Club, founded in May 1936, was a key left-wing institution of the late 1930s and the 1940s in the United Kingdom. It was set up by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz and John Strachey to revitalise and educate the British Left. The Club's aim was to "help in the struggle for world peace and against fascism". Aiming to break even with 2,500 members, it had 40,000 within the first year and by 1939 it was up to 57,000. The LBC was one of the first book clubs in the UK and, as such, played an important role in the evolution of the country's book trade.
The club supplied a book chosen every month by Gollancz and his panel (Harold Laski and John Strachey) to its members, many of whom took part in one of the 1,500 Left Discussion Groups scattered around the country. The books and pamphlets with their distinctive covers—orange for paperback (1936–1938) and red for hardback (1938–1948) editions—bore the legend "NOT FOR SALE TO THE PUBLIC" and sold for 2s 6d to members. Many titles were available for sale only in the LBC edition, with monthly 'choices' received by all members; there were also reprints of current socialist and 'progressive' classics for members to buy. The volumes covered history, science, reporting and fiction and a range of other subjects, but always from a left-leaning perspective.
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