About the Library

Two versions of the Library Catalogue are available here:

• Library Catalogue: Alphabetical List
• Library Catalogue: Shelfmark List

Our previous librarian, George Jelliss, gave this description during the summer of 2006:

The Leicester Secular Society Library is housed in 5 bookcases built into the left-hand wall of the ground floor meeting room. (A 6th bookcase still exists but is inaccessible due to partitions inserted at some date.) This page is for information about the content and history of the Library. Some members maintain that the Library was among the earliest public lending libraries in Leicester. At present the alphabetical list of its contents contains 1004 entries, which includes some duplicate references. Mr R. Morrell in a footnote to his edition of the F. J. Gould History of the Society suggests the Library may have been larger in the past, but I have no other evidence for this. Currently the shelves are packed, and there is only the one unusable bookcase.

Earlier versions of the catalogue were produced by Rupert Halfhide in 1986 in handwritten form, and by Wilfred Gaunt around 1995 in typewritten form. This internet and print version, by George Jelliss, was begun in April 2005 and updated 23 October 2005. During the same period of 2005 the shelves were cleaned and all the titles rearranged according to subject. It covers all the books and pamphlets in the library. Many new titles have been added during the past ten years. A few titles in the previous catalogues have gone missing, they are listed below.

In the alphabetical catalogue the works are arranged in alphabetical order of author's names, those with no identified author being in the first section. It is intended to add fuller details of publishers, dates, donors, and description of contents eventually (if time and other work permits). In this listing the code at the start of each entry indicates where it appears in the library. Thus, for example, 3D indicates the third bookcase, fourth shelf down.

The contents of the bookcases are classified roughly as follows:

1. Miscellaneous: (A, B) History, (C) Larger books, (D) Books for Sale, (E) Free leaflets
2. Religion: (A) General, (B) Christianty, (C) Church & State, (D) Atheism and Rationalism, (E) Larger magazines and leaflets
3. Philosophy: (A) Modern History, (B) Politics, (C) Freethought and Humanism, (D) General
4. Science: (A) Geographic, (B) Technology & Medicine, (C) Education, Psychology & Sociology, (D) Evolution
5. Literature: at present alphabetical [proposed: (A) Plays, (B) Poems, (C) Novels, (D) Essays]

An asterisk (*) before a title indicates that there are duplicates for sale on the lower shelves of bookcase 1. FP = First published. ND = no date of publication.

Lost Titles

The following titles were in the 1995 or 1986 lists but are currently missing (possibly still out on loan).
95 - The Parallel New Testament AV1611 compared RV1881 (OUP)
95 - Frank Ballard; Theomonism True: God in Modern Light
95 - Ramsden Bal(m)forth; The Bible from the Standpoint of the Higher Criticism
95 - Earnest Sutherland Bates; The Gospel According to Judas Iscariot
95 - Rally Husted Bell; The Changing Values of English Speech
95 - Chapman Cohen; The Other Side of Death
95 - Charles Darwin; Autobiography
95 - F. J. Gould; The Life Story of a Humanist (duplcate)
95 - G. J. Holyoake; The Origin and Nature of Secularism
95 - F. A. Ridley; Social Catholicism (pamphlet)
95 - Mark Twain; What Is Man?
95 - 'Dr A. Van Helsing'; Is Greville Janner Above the Law? (pamphlet)
86 - Methodist Public Prayers and Services
86 - Guy A. Aldred; Richard Carlile: Agitator
86 - F. Borkenau; The New German Empire
86 - Bottomore and Rubel; Karl Marx
86 - Alice Wexler; Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life