Research note November 2025: a letter from Ethel Mannin

In this letter from 1980, writer and activist Ethel Mannin (1900-1984) refers to her own involvement with anarchism,  and comments on anarchists Emma Goldman, Marie Louise Berneri and Kitty Lamb. I had written asking if she would agree to be interviewed by members of the anarchist feminist history group, as part of our research into anarchist women in Britain. Sadly we never did get to meet her in person, and got only the  briefest of replies to some questions we subsequently sent her.   I’m uploading it now in the hope that (after all these years lurking in my filing cabinet) it may be of some use to other researchers.

First page of typescript letter from Ethel Mannin to Judy Greenway, November 20, 1980, with comments on Emma Goldman.
Letter from Ethel Mannin to Judy Greenway, 20 November 1980, p.1. Photo © Judy Greenway
Second page of typescript letter from Ethel Mannin to Judy Greenway
Letter from Ethel Mannin to Judy Greenway, 20 November 1980, p.1. Photo © Judy Greenway
book cover of Ethel Mannin's "Privileged Spectator" revised 1946 edition
First published in 1938, this is the cover of the revised 1946 edition of ‘Privileged Spectator’. Photo © Judy Greenway.