Administrative/biographical history

Index on Censorship magazine was founded in 1972 by Michael Scammell, director of Writers & Scholars International (later the Writers & Scholars Educational Trust), to monitor and expose violations of freedom of expression worldwide in the field of literature and other arts. Over the years Index on Censorship/Index has published some of the greatest names in modern literature, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen Spender, and Vaclav Havel, and told the stories of countless other writers and artists oppressed by authoritarian governments.

Scope and content

• Reports and balance sheets, 1884-1920. Papers of Writers & Scholars International, the Writers & Scholars Educational Trust, and Index on Cernsorship/Index (1971-2009), including:

• Correspondence of the founders: Stephen Spender, Stuart Hampshire and David Astor; of members of the governing Council: Louis Blom Cooper, Mark Bonham Carter, Edward Crankshaw, Lord Gardiner, Dan Jacobson, Lady Elizabeth Longford, Peter Reddaway, Sir Roland Penrose, Jim Rose, Evelyn de Rothschild, Lord Sainsbury, Lois Sieff, Zbynek Zeman; and of editors: Michael Scammell, Hugh Lunghi, George Theiner, Sally Laird, Andrew Graham-Yooll, Ursula Owen (1971-1997).
• Minutes of Writers and Scholars International Ltd including the Finance and Editorial Committee, 1971-1996.
• Minutes of the Writers and Scholars Educational Trust, 1984-1997.
• Accounts of the Writers and Scholars Education Trust and Writers and Scholars International Limited, 1981-1993.
• Correspondence regarding the lease on 21 Russell Street, London, 1974-1980.
• Papers regarding the merger of Article 19, Index on Censorship and Writers and Scholars Educational Trust, 1987-1989.
• Papers regarding publishing, administration and funding of Index on Censorship, 1983-2009.
• Papers and correspondence regarding Charities Aid Foundation America, the Saatchi advertising campaign, the event ‘They shoot writers, don’t they?’, and the Africa Project, 1984-2002.
• Pamphlets, 1979-2007.
• Articles from various authors including reports regarding the 20th anniversary of Index on Censorship, 1987-1997.
• Front cover designs and photographs used in Index on Censorship magazine, 1989-1990.
• Amnesty International Media Award, Periodicals Award, Russia Series, 2008.
• Cartoons drawn by Palomo, Brychta, Plantu, Milan Radev, Andrsej Krauze and others, 1982-1991.
• Examples of Samizdat and activities of Eastern European Peace Groups, 1972-1999.
• Cuttings and articles from the Index on Censorship Archive regarding events and activities in countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, the Pacific and the Americas, 1987-2008.
• Press cuttings, posters, photographs, artwork, programmes and publicity regarding the foundation of Index on Censorship as well as activities and events, 1971-2006.
• Photographs of Index on Censorship personalities, campaigns, activities and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, 1974-1992.
• Publications by Margaret Scammell, Holli Semetko, Ruth Petrie, Judi Vernau, W.L.Webb and Rose Bell, 1997-2003; Film [contents unknown], 1987.
• Correspondence with various national societies regarding credit trading, 1915-1916.
• Report by the Co-operative Union on the office, organisation and method of the Chelmsford Star Industrial Co-operative Society, 1964.
• Miscellaneous papers, correspondence and ephemera regarding the Chelmsford Star Industrial Co-operative Society, the Good Samaritan Optical Fund, Braintree Co-operative Society, Maldon and Heybridge Co-operative Society, the Essex and Suffolk Hours and Wages Board, the Essex Co-operative Funeral Furnishing Society, the Essex Co-operative Boot and Shoe Repairing Society, the Essex Co-operative Ice Cream Society, the Joint Advisory Committee of East Anglican Co-operative Societies, 1893 - 1975.
• Delegate pack, including handwritten notes for the Chelmsford Star Industrial Co-operative Society delegate at the Co-operative Congress, Eastbourne, 1971.

Quantity

108 files.