Left and Right Book Clubs
The Left Book Club was established in 1936 by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz and John Strachey.
Their books and pamphlets, with distinctive orange or red covers, included a number of reprints of contemporary socialist and ‘progressive’ classics. Subjects covered include history, science, reporting and fiction, all from a left-leaning perspective.
The Right Book Club was launched as a conservative response to the Left Book Club in February 1937, by Edgar Samuel, who worked for the book selling firm W. & G. Foyle, and his father-in-law William Foyle.
It was initially set up as a non-fiction book club, reprinting already published titles in RBC editions. In October 1951 it changed its name to Non-Fiction Book Club and was part of the larger Foyles Book Club.
The Libraries hold 255 of the 259 titles published by the Left Book Club and 112 titles of an unknown number published by the Right Book Club.