C. Frank Glass papers, 1913-1987

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Summary

Creators:
Prohme, Rayna, -1927 and Glass, C. Frank (Cecil Frank), 1901-1988
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.
Extent:
3 manuscript boxes (1.2 Linear Feet)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], C. Frank Glass papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:
Date Event
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
Acquisition information:
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2004.
Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

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.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], C. Frank Glass papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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