Although I never met George when he was a member of the SPGB in the forties I did know of him. I was most agreeably surprised when he told me (when I became a subscriber to IC) that he had known many of the Glasgow members that I knew so well, such as Angus Beech… read more »
Harold Walsby circa 1940s I don’t know when I met George, but it must have been after 1951, when I came back to London after raveling round the North of England with Harold Walsby, selling encyclopaedias. There were several of us at that time interested in Walsby’s ideas, and the two I knew best were… read more »
I wish I had been able to write much earlier, if only to give credibility to my expression of regret, forming in fact one of the main supplementary reasons for the writing of this letter, that I never made my peace with George. I suppose I vaguely thought the breach would heal itself in the… read more »
George Walford died in late August 1994, an event not much noticed in the [Antiquarian Bookselling] trade. We stood in silent memory of him, as is our custom with ABA members, at the ABA Committee, but there was little talk of him then or afterwards. Some surprising people said they had never met him…. read more »
I described the factual side of my encounter with George elsewhere (see my Ideologies in an Hierarchical Order in Science and Public Policy, vol. 11, No.1, pp. 40 -46), but I made no mention there of my impressions of that encounter. I live in a country in which ideology has for many years not been… read more »
It was with pleasure I received your letter, which arrived at a time when, coincidentally, we had been thinking about how much we are missing George Walford’s IC – his ideas, thoughts & stimulus for further ideas & thoughts. It is good to know that this discussion continues – he’d like that. In the (sadly)… read more »
George Walford has been a friend for almost fifty years. We first met early in 1946 at what was, I believe, the first public meeting of the Social Science Association. The founder of this organisation had published a number of cheap booklets, or pamphlets, on such subjects as The Atom Bomb, The Mass Mind,… read more »
I am delighted that you are publishing a memorial for George Walford. His unique Ideological Commentary is unforgettable and his efforts to continue Harold Walsby’s thinking deserves a follow-up, particularly as the freelance scholar has become almost an extinct species. Intellectual thinking is all but monopolised by institutions. SI: IGNORED, ALONE AND ILLUMINATING Until S.I.,… read more »
Ike Benjamin and Trevor Blake I never had the pleasure of meeting George Walford. Not even once, nor did we ever speak on the phone. But his work as a student of systematic ideology and as a bookseller has had a direct and long-lasting effect on my life. When I first heard from George in… read more »
I FIRST MET GEORGE in 1948 after being introduced to the group by Peter Shepherd and after several sessions with Harold Walsby. My situation was rather different from that of other newcomers in that year – there was a campaign directed against the SPGB, as the result of which several new members were recruited. By… read more »