When I was in Amsterdam I spent several days at the International Institute of Social History, which actually has a fascinating history of its own (such as smuggling documents out of Spain as fascist forces sweep through). Anyhow, the place is the world’s largest repository of anarchist history. Of particular note to me, it houses almost-complete collections of La Novela Ideal and La Novela Libre, two long-running, regular, widely distributed fiction magazines published by anarchists in Spain up into the Spanish civil war.

So I went and I photographed a lot of stuff, which I’ve put up on my Flickr. The catch is that I can’t really read enough Spanish to understand these things. So please, anyone with interest in this stuff, let me know. If the stories are good, I’d be happy to make them available in zine format. And if anyone is feeling really inspired, I’d be happy to print English translations as well.

Specifically, I’ve posted (books are in Spanish unless noted):

• La novela ideal #1: Mi amigo Julio by Adrian del Valle (1920s sometime)
• La novela ideal #292: Julieta by Maria Sola (1932)
• La Novela Ideal #449: Por una sola noche by Federico Urales (1935)
• La novela ideal #482: Crimenes en tierrafirma by Teresa Gibert (1935)
• La Novela Ideal #591: Juanita by Valentin Obac (1938)
• 1928 Almanaque de la novela ideal (includes various writers and translations of anarchist texts)
• La Novela Libre #36: Amor De Un Dia by Federica Montseny
• La Novela Libre #44: Mujeres libres by Mariano Gallardo (novela sexual)
• Heroinas, a novella by Federica Montseny (here are two photos of her and published by the CNT (or by CNT printers?) sometime around 1936
• A collection of German-language anarchist newspapers, mostly the covers, from a book at IISH (in German)
• Nihilism as it is by Stepniak (translated to English)
  

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