Born in 1899 Leon Kramer was an idealist, philosophical anarchist, and bookseller, who
began his radical career in the town of Godorok, near Minsk, Russia. He made speeches in an
effort to organize local workers. In 1904, at the age of 15, he was arrested for his
political activities, jailed in Minsk, and then sent to Siberia. The five years Kramer spent
in Siberia served not as a cure, but as a confirmation of his political beliefs.
Kramer came to the United States in 1913, at first living with relatives in Boston and
finally moving to New York around 1929. He initially worked as a subscription salesman for
the anarchist publication, Freie Arbeiter-Stimme (Free Voice of Labor); however still interested in social problems
and their potential political solutions, he began avidly collecting radical literature. He
quickly became known by radicals, booksellers, and book collectors as a specialist in his
field. His career as a bookseller began with him buying and selling duplicate copies of
books in his own collection. By 1930, he was working full-time as a rare book dealer
specializing in the fields of economics, social sciences, and radical literature.
Kramer issued his first catalogue in 1934, by which time he had also opened a store in his
New York apartment. Kramer ran the business and continued to issue catalogues until the year
of his death, 1962. After Kramer died, his daughter Jean Kramer ran the business until
1964.
