Register of the C. Frank Glass papers
Processed by Dale Reed.
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Phone: (650) 723-3563
Fax: (650) 725-3445
Email: archives@hoover.stanford.edu
© 2010
Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved.
Register of the C. Frank Glass papers
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, California
- Processed by:
- Dale Reed
- Date Completed:
- 2010
- Encoded by:
- Machine-readable finding aid derived from Microsoft Word and MARC record by Samira Bozorgi.
© 2010 Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved.
Collection Summary
Title: C. Frank Glass papers
Dates: 1913-1987
Collection Number: 2004C12
Creator: Glass, C. Frank (Cecil Frank), 1901-1988
Collection Size:
3 manuscript boxes
(1.2 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
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.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
English
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Access to audiovisual materials requires at least two weeks advance notice. Audiovisual materials include sound recordings,
video recordings, and motion picture film. Hoover staff will determine whether use copies of the materials requested can be
made available. Some materials may not be accessible even with advance notice. Please contact the Hoover Institution Archives
for further information.
Publication Rights
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], C. Frank Glass papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2004.
Accruals
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog Socrates at
http://library.stanford.edu/webcat . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in Socrates is larger than the number of boxes
listed in this finding aid.
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 Archives were acquired from Susan Weissman in 2003. The collection is
small. There are also Glass papers at Concordia College in Toronto, Ontario, 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.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Fourth International.
Communism--South Africa.
Communism--China.
Communism--United States.
China--History--Republic, 1912-1949.
Americans--China.
Prohme, Rayna Simons, 1894-1927.
Collection Contents
Box: 1
Correspondence
1921-1987
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically. Third-party letters are entered under name of writer.
Box/Folder: 1 : 2
De Wet, Madge (sister of Frank Glass),
1954-1987
Box/Folder: 1 : 3
Glass, Grace Simons (wife of Frank Glass),
1942
Box/Folder: 1 : 4
Grunfeld, A. Tom,
1984-1986
Box/Folder: 1 : 5
International Secretariat for the Fourth International,
1934-1936
Scope and Content Note
Compilation of transcriptions of letters and excerpts from letters by Glass and others
Box/Folder: 1 : 7
Library of Social History,
undated
Box/Folder: 1
Prohme, Rayna
Scope and Content Note
Letters from Rayna Prohme to her sister Grace Simons and to her first and second husbands, Samson Raphaelson and William Prohme.
Box/Folder: 1 : 10
1927 (en route to and in Moscow)
Box/Folder: 1 : 11
Prohme, William (second husband of Rayna Prohme),
1927-1935 and undated
Scope and Content Note
Letters from Prohme to Grace Simons and her first husband Wilbur Burton, and to Helen Freeland and Vincent Sheean
Box/Folder: 1 : 13
Sheean, Vincent,
1927
Scope and Content Note
Letters from Sheean in Moscow to Helen Freeland and Samson Raphaelson re the death of Rayna Prohme
Box/Folder: 1 : 14
Sinclair, Louis,
1985-1987
Box/Folder: 1 : 15
Strong, Anna Louise,
1927
Scope and Content Note
Letters from Strong in Moscow to Samson Raphaelson and to the mother of Rayna Prohme re her death
Box/Folder: 1 : 17
United States. War Department,
1944
Box: 1
Speeches and writings
1932-1962
Scope and Content Note
Speeches and writings by C. Frank Glass, arranged chronologically
Box/Folder: 1 : 19
"What I Saw in the Shanghai War,"
Johannesburg Sunday Times,
1932 May 22
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym A South African. Printed copy.
Box/Folder: 1 : 20
"The War Lords Go 'Left,'" New Masses,
1934 January 16
Scope and Content Note
Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 21
"The End of the Chinese Soviets,"
New International,
1938 January
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 22
"After the Fall of Wuhan,"
New International,
1939 January
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 23
"Lessons and Perspectives of the Sino-Japanese War,"
Fourth International,
1941 February
Scope and Content Note
Written under the psuedonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 24
"Chen Tu-hsiu: Chinese Revolutionist,"
Fourth International,
1942 August
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 25
"Japan Faces the Abyss,"
Fourth International,
1944 February-April
Scope and Content Note
Three-part series written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 26
"Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary Teacher of the Colonial Peoples,"
Fourth International,
1944 August
Box/Folder: 1 : 27
"Imperialist Program for the Orient,"
Fourth International,
1945 June
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 28
"War Guilt in the Pacific: A Political Analysis of the Pearl Harbor Reports,"
Fourth International,
1945 October
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 29
"China After World War II,"
Fourth International,
1946 July
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 30
Vigilante Terror in Fontana: The Tragic Story of O'Day H. Short and His Family,
1946
Scope and Content 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/Folder: 1 : 31
"The Kuomintang Faces Its Doom: Civil War in China,"
Fourth International,
1949 February
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 32
"China: A World Power,"
Fourth International,
1951 January-February
Scope and Content Note
Written under the pseudonym Li Fu-ren. Printed copy
Box/Folder: 1 : 33
Our China Policy: An Open Letter to All the Members of the Socialist Workers Party,
1962 October 14
Scope and Content Note
Written under the psudonym John Liang. Typescript
Box/Folder: 1 : 34
Sykee, the Wonk,
undated
Scope and Content Note
Typescript
Box: 2
Subject File
1913-1985
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by topic
Box/Folder: 2 : 1
Shanghai French Concession police reports (photocopies) on Glass, Grace Simons Burton (later Glass), Alexander Buchman and
others,
1935-1938
Scope and Content Note
Includes English translations
Box/Folder: 2 : 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/Folder: 2 : 3
United States Department of State reports (photocopies) on Glass, Wilbur Burton and others,
1933-1937
Box/Folder: 2 : 5
Miscellany. Calling cards, letter of recommendation, notes, and Chinese document,
1926-1936
Box/Folder: 2 : 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/Folder: 2 : 7
Raphaelson, Samson (first husband of Rayna Prohme). Printed memoir by Raphaelson,
1981
Box/Folder: 2 : 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/Folder: 2 : 9
United States. Immigration visa documents, union membership cards, clippings re Simons family, and death certificate of Grace
Simons Glass,
1929-1985
Box: 3 : 10
Audiovisual File
circa 1900s-1940s
Scope and Content Note
Photographs and postcards
Box/Folder: 3 : 1
Photographs of individuals. Those depicted include Glass, Grace Simons Glass, Rayna Prohme, Tillman Durdin, Randall Gould
and Harold Isaacs
Box/Folder: 3 : 2
Photographs of Simons family members
Box/Folder: 3 : 3
Photographs of Wilbur Burton (first husband of Grace Simons)
Box/Folder: 3 : 4
Postcards of scenes in South Africa
Box/Folder: 3 : 5
Photographs of scenes in China
Box/Folder: 3 : 7
Photocopies of printed reproductions of photographs. Those depicted include Glass, Grace Simons Glass, Rayna Prohme, Wilbur
Burton and John Reed
Box/Folder: 3 : 8
Glass plate of scene in China
