University of Glasgow

UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

 
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Bissett Collection

image displayed here shows front cover of Bissett 1273

Some 1,500 Left-Wing pamphlets ranging in date from the late 19th century to the present time, collected by Glasgow schoolteacher James Bissett and purchased from him in 1981 with a grant from the Local Museums Purchase Fund. Their authors include Tolstoi, Marx, Trotsky, Lenin, Kropotkin, Keir Hardie, Gustave Hervé, Annie Besant, Guy Aldred, and J.D. Bernal. The subject coverage is extremely wide, embracing topics such as Bolshevism, the Fabians, the Independent Labour Party, the Spanish Civil War, women’s rights, trade unions, and unemployment. The collection includes an almost complete set of Left Book Club editions and a number of scarce local imprints, e.g. publications of the Bakunin Press and the Strickland Press in Glasgow.

Finding aids and descriptions

  • Records for the pamphlets are all available via the main Library catalogue; browse through a list of titles
  • Left Book Club editions are all available via the main Library catalogue; browse through a separate list of titles
  • Several items from the collection appear in the Glasgow Digitial Library's Red Clydeside project pages.