Register of the C. Frank Glass papers
Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Library and Archives Staff
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 2010
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
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Title: C. Frank Glass papers
Date (inclusive): 1913-1987
Collection Number: 2004C12
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
3 manuscript boxes
(1.2 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, police reports, personal documents, printed matter, photographs, and postcards, relating to Trotskyism
in South Africa, China and the United States. Includes many letters by Rayna Prohme, American revolutionary journalist in
China and sister-in-law of Glass.
Creator:
Prohme, Rayna, -1927
Creator:
Glass, C. Frank (Cecil Frank), 1901-1988
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Access
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2004.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], C. Frank Glass papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Biographical/Historical Note
| 1901 |
Born, Birmingham, England |
| 1909 |
Immigrated to South Africa |
| 1921 |
Founding member, Communist Party of South Africa |
| 1931 |
Relocated to China |
| 1932-1933 |
Tass News Agency writer, Shanghai |
| 1934-1935 |
Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury reporter
|
| 1935-1936 |
Shanghai Times reporter
|
| 1935-1937 |
Secretary, Communist League of China |
| 1938-1941 |
China Weekly Review writer, Shanghai
|
| 1942 |
Relocated to the United States |
| 1944-1963 |
National Committee member, Socialist Workers Party |
| 1988 |
Died, Los Angeles, California |
Scope and Content of Collection
Cecil Frank Glass was a radical journalist and revolutionary political activist on three continents. He was a founding member
of the Communist Party of South Africa in 1921, and in 1928 became an early adherent of the International Left Opposition
led by Leon Trotsky. After relocating to Shanghai, China, in 1931, he spent most of the next decade there, working as a journalist.
Concurrently he was actively involved in rebuilding the Trotskyist movement in China, and was a member of the Central Committee
of the Communist League of China. Glass was closely associated with radical American journalists in Shanghai, including Wilbur
Burton and Harold Isaacs. There he also met the American Grace Simons (1901-1985). She was first married to Burton and afterwards
to Glass. Grace's older sister Rayna Simons Prohme (1894-1927) had been a prominent figure among Western revolutionaries involved
with the Left Guomindang, had edited the
Peking People's Tribune and other journals, and had been an associate of Mikhail Borodin and Song Qingling (Madame Sun Yat-sen). Rayna accompanied
Madame Sun to the Soviet Union following the failure of the 1927 revolution in China, and died suddenly in Moscow, evidently
of a brain tumor.
After two trips to the United States and Mexico (where he conferred with Trotsky) during the 1930s, Glass relocated permanently
to the United States during World War II. There, he was for years a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party, but eventually
developed a more sympathetic view of the Maoist government of China than could easily be reconciled with an orthodox Trotskyist
position.
In political work Glass made use of the pseudonyms Frank Graves, Li Fu-ren and John Liang. He is the subject of a biography
by Baruch Hirson,
The Restless Revolutionary: Frank Glass (London: Porcupine Press, 2003).
The C. Frank Glass papers in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives were acquired from Susan Weissman in 2003. The collection
is small. Glass papers are also a component of the S. A. Rochlin collection of South African political and trade union organizations
(Fonds C009), held at Concordia University Library Special Collections, but it seems likely that many other papers did not
survive.
The collection is arranged in four series:
Correspondence,
Speeches and Writings,
Subject File, and
Audiovisual File. Of particular interest are many lengthy letters by Rayna Prohme, some written to her sister Grace, and some written to her
second husband William Prohme and passed on to Grace when Prohme died in 1935. The collection also includes printed copies
of political articles by Glass, and photocopies of surveillance reports on Glass and associates made by British, French and
American police and consular authorities in Shanghai.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Communism -- United States
Americans -- China
Communism -- China
China -- History -- Republic, 1912-1949
Communism -- South Africa
Fourth International
Correspondence
1921-1987
Arrangement note
Arranged alphabetically. Third-party letters are entered under name of writer.
box 1, folder 2
De Wet, Madge (sister of Frank Glass)
1954-1987
box 1, folder 3
Glass, Grace Simons (wife of Frank Glass)
1942
box 1, folder 4
Grunfeld, A. Tom
1984-1986
box 1, folder 5
International Secretariat for the Fourth International
1934-1936
Scope and Contents note
Compilation of transcriptions of letters and excerpts from letters by Glass and others
box 1, folder 7
Library of Social History
undated
Prohme, Rayna
Scope and Contents note
Letters from Rayna Prohme to her sister Grace Simons and to her first and second husbands, Samson Raphaelson and William Prohme.
box 1, folder 10
1927 (en route to and in Moscow)
box 1, folder 11
Prohme, William (second husband of Rayna Prohme)
1927-1935 and undated
Scope and Contents note
Letters from Prohme to Grace Simons and her first husband Wilbur Burton, and to Helen Freeland and Vincent Sheean
box 1, folder 13
Sheean, Vincent
1927
Scope and Contents note
Letters from Sheean in Moscow to Helen Freeland and Samson Raphaelson re the death of Rayna Prohme
box 1, folder 14
Sinclair, Louis
1985-1987
box 1, folder 15
Strong, Anna Louise
1927
Scope and Contents note
Letters from Strong in Moscow to Samson Raphaelson and to the mother of Rayna Prohme re her death
box 1, folder 17
United States. War Department
1944
Speeches and writings
1932-1962
Scope and Contents note
Speeches and writings by C. Frank Glass, arranged chronologically
box 1, folder 19
"What I Saw in the Shanghai War,"
Johannesburg Sunday Times
1932 May 22
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym A South African. Printed copy.
box 1, folder 20
"The War Lords Go 'Left,'" New Masses
1934 January 16
Scope and Contents note
Printed copy
box 1, folder 21
"The End of the Chinese Soviets,"
New International
1938 January
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 22
"After the Fall of Wuhan,"
New International
1939 January
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 23
"Lessons and Perspectives of the Sino-Japanese War,"
Fourth International
1941 February
Scope and Contents note
Written under the psuedonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 24
"Chen Tu-hsiu: Chinese Revolutionist,"
Fourth International
1942 August
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 25
"Japan Faces the Abyss,"
Fourth International
1944 February-April
Scope and Contents note
Three-part series written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 26
"Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary Teacher of the Colonial Peoples,"
Fourth International
1944 August
box 1, folder 27
"Imperialist Program for the Orient,"
Fourth International
1945 June
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 28
"War Guilt in the Pacific: A Political Analysis of the Pearl Harbor Reports,"
Fourth International
1945 October
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 29
"China After World War II,"
Fourth International
1946 July
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 30
Vigilante Terror in Fontana: The Tragic Story of O'Day H. Short and His Family
1946
Scope and Contents note
Pamphlet re black victims of racial attack in Fontana, California, published under the authorship of Myra Tanner Weiss, but
ghostwritten for her by Glass. Printed copy
box 1, folder 31
"The Kuomintang Faces Its Doom: Civil War in China,"
Fourth International
1949 February
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 32
"China: A World Power,"
Fourth International
1951 January-February
Scope and Contents note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
box 1, folder 33
Our China Policy: An Open Letter to All the Members of the Socialist Workers Party
1962 October 14
Scope and Contents note
Written under the psudonym John Liang. Typescript
box 1, folder 34
Sykee, the Wonk
undated
Scope and Contents note
Typescript
Subject File
1913-1985
Arrangement note
Arranged alphabetically by topic
box 2, folder 1
Shanghai French Concession police reports (photocopies) on Glass, Grace Simons Burton (later Glass), Alexander Buchman and
others
1935-1938
Scope and Contents note
Includes English translations
box 2, folder 2
Shanghai Municipal Police Special Branch reports (photocopies) on Glass, Wilbur Burton, Harold Isaacs, William and Rayna Prohme,
Richard Sorge and others
1926-1933
box 2, folder 3
United States Department of State reports (photocopies) on Glass, Wilbur Burton and others
1933-1937
box 2, folder 5
Miscellany. Calling cards, letter of recommendation, notes, and Chinese document
1926-1936
box 2, folder 6
Prohme, Rayna. Transcript of death certificate, "Rayna Simons Prohme: A Report on the Last Months of Her Life" by William
Prohme (typescript), "Rayna: Letters from the Chinese Revolution" by Arthur J. Knodel (typescript), and clippings and other
printed matter
1913-1982
box 2, folder 7
Raphaelson, Samson (first husband of Rayna Prohme). Printed memoir by Raphaelson
1981
box 2, folder 8
South Africa. Will of Gertrude Emily Glass (mother of Frank Glass), letters of recommendation, certificates and receipts,
catalog of bookstore operated by Glass in Johannesburg, and printed matter
1920-1930
box 2, folder 9
United States. Immigration visa documents, union membership cards, clippings re Simons family, and death certificate of Grace
Simons Glass
1929-1985
Audiovisual File
1900s-1940s
Scope and Contents note
Photographs and postcards
box 3, folder 10
Audiovisual File
1900s-1940s
box 3, folder 1
Photographs of individuals. Those depicted include Glass, Grace Simons Glass, Rayna Prohme, Tillman Durdin, Randall Gould
and Harold Isaacs
box 3, folder 2
Photographs of Simons family members
box 3, folder 3
Photographs of Wilbur Burton (first husband of Grace Simons)
box 3, folder 4
Postcards of scenes in South Africa
box 3, folder 5
Photographs of scenes in China
box 3, folder 7
Photocopies of printed reproductions of photographs. Those depicted include Glass, Grace Simons Glass, Rayna Prohme, Wilbur
Burton and John Reed
box 3, folder 8
Glass plate of scene in China
