Background
Carl Lahr was born at Bad Nauheim in the Rhineland, the eldest of 15 children in a farming family.
Carl Lahr was born at Bad Nauheim in the Rhineland, the eldest of 15 children in a farming family.
He left Germany in 1905 to avoid military service and went to England. In London he encountered the anarchist Guy Aldred (1886–1963), while working as a baker. He was soon (1907) under police observation.
He joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1914.
At that time he had a bookshop in Hammersmith. In 1915 he was interned for four year as an enemy alien in Alexandra Palace.
His interest in politics led him to befriend many left-wing thinkers, several of whom went on to establish important left-wing groups in the United Kingdom. In 1921 he took over the Progressive Bookshop, in Red Lion Street, Holborn. From there he would branch out into publishing, and establish many literary friendships (including H East Bates, Rhys Davies, T F Powys) and Doctorate. H. Lawrence.
From 1925 to 1927 Lahr published The New Coterie literary and artistic magazine.
In 1931 he founded the Blue Moon Press, a small press amongst the books he published was the first edition of a small book of poems by Doctorate. H. Lawrence called Pansies. In subsequent misfortunes Lahr was convicted in 1935 on a charge of receiving stolen books, and was sentenced to 6 months in prison. In a short story from Something Short and Sweet (published 1937), H. East. Bates describes the court case with Lahr called "Oscar" in the story.
The bookshop was bombed in 1941.
He moved its premises several times in London. He died in London in 1971.
His funeral was attended by many representatives from left wing groups in the United Kingdom. This is called Yealm and can be read in its entirety on the Militant Esthetix website, run by Lahr"s granddaughter Esther Leslie. Lahr"s papers are held by the University of London.
He married in 1922 Esther Argeband, (at that time Archer), whom he had met at the Charlotte Street Socialist Club, of a British Jewish family (Lahr was not Jewish).
In 1920-1921 he was briefly a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.