Social Democracy History Archive: Commonweal 1885 - 1891
Commonweal, Volume 2 (1886)
The Official Journal of the Socialist LeagueThis page lists PDF scans of the second volume of Commonweal, covering the second year of the paper. In May the paper switched from monthly to weekly. These scans were originally put in the public domain by the University of Michigan. If you have a better copy of an issue please let MIA know!
From May 1st 1886 Commonweal switched to the weekly format it would have for the next four years, following which (and after a dispute over a personal attack in an article) Edward Aveling resigned as sub-editor. After the annual conference in June, William Morris was reappointed as editor and Belfort Bax replaced Aveling as sub-editor. Commonweal began to take advertisements in an attempt to bolster its income. In December, Bax resigned and was replaced by Halliday Sparling as sub-editor. According to Sparling's memoir of the Kelmscott Press, during 1886 the Socialist League began to do its own typesetting, with Thomas Binning as printer, as well as frequent correspondent on union issues.
During the year, Commonweal published a number of major works by Morris and Bax, including much of Socialism from the Root Up, Pilgrims of Hope, and A Dream of John Ball.
The missing supplement for the 18th September was allegedly printed for Victor Dave at the Whitfield Street Club as part of his dispute with Peukert within the anarchist movement. The supplement is referred to in John Quail, The Slow-burning Fuse, PM Press, Ch. 3.
1886 January Volume 2, No. 12 January, 1886 February Volume 2, No. 13 February, 1886 March Volume 2, No. 14 March, 1886 April Volume 2, No. 15 April, 1886 May Volume 2, No. 16 1 May, 1886 Volume 2, No. 17 8 May, 1886 Volume 2, No. 18 15 May, 1886 Volume 2, No. 19 22 May, 1886 Volume 2, No. 20 29 May, 1886 June Volume 2, No. 21 5 June, 1886 Volume 2, No. 22 12 June, 1886 Volume 2, No. 23 19 June, 1886 Volume 2, No. 24 26 June, 1886 July Volume 2, No. 25 3 July, 1886 Volume 2, No. 26 10 July, 1886 Volume 2, No. 27 17 July, 1886 Volume 2, No. 28 24 July, 1886 Volume 2, No. 29 31 July, 1886 August Volume 2, No. 30 7 August, 1886 Volume 2, No. 31 14 August, 1886 Volume 2, No. 32 21 August, 1886 Volume 2, No. 33 28 August, 1886 September Volume 2, No. 34 4 September, 1886 Volume 2, No. 35 11 September, 1886 Volume 2, No. 36 18 September, 1886 Supplement to Volume 2, No. 36 Marked 'Printed for foreign transmission only' MISSING Volume 2, No. 37 25 September, 1886 October Volume 2, No. 38 2 October, 1886 Volume 2, No. 39 9 October, 1886 Volume 2, No. 40 16 October, 1886 Volume 2, No. 41 23 October, 1886 Volume 2, No. 42 30 October, 1886 November Volume 2, No. 43 6 November, 1886 Volume 2, No. 44 13 November, 1886 Volume 2, No. 45 20 November, 1886 Volume 2, No. 46 27 November, 1886 December Volume 2, No. 47 4 December, 1886 Volume 2, No. 48 11 December, 1886 Volume 2, No. 49 18 December, 1886 Volume 2, No. 50 25 December, 1886