Ashleigh was born in West Hamstead, London in 1892. His mother was Lillie Ashleigh living at 66 West End Lane, West Hampstead, London, UK. In about 1918, he stated he was not married and that his father was deceased and no name was given. Around 1905 or 1906 Ashleigh had been in London as in a letter he mentioned meeting a Mrs Horsley, outside Cornwall Hall, wishing to attend a lecture which had been cancelled. In 1909 he lectured on socialism across Wales. In 1916, seven members of the IWW were killed by sheriff's deputies during the Everett Massacre. 74 IWW members were then arrested. Ashleigh worked for the Everett Prisoners’ Defense League during their trial. While working as a journalist in San Francisco, Ashleigh was arrested on October 20, 1917 during a national sweep of radical leaders and organizers. Ashleigh was put on trial for seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to injurecivil rights, and conspiracy to obstruct the military service with other IWW leaders in Chicago in 1918. He was sentenced to 10 years in the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas on September 7, 1918 Ashleigh was inmate 13115. A fellow inmate was William D. Haywood, together with around 90 others from the IWW. His sentence was commuted on December, 26, 1921 after Ashleigh agreed to be deported to England. After his release from prison Ashleigh moved to New York City at the insistence of The Liberator, which had published his prison poems and implored their readers to fund his bail. While in New York, Ashleigh befriended the Jamaican poet, Claude McKay. The pair were romantically involved off and on throughout the 1910s and 1920s. In 1922 the pair traveled together to the 4th World Congress of the Communist International in Petrograd, USSR. The following year the pair traveled to Berlin and reconnected in Nice in 1926. Ashleigh died from cancer on December 25, 1974. Two small collections of interviews with Ashleigh are held at Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library and the Special Collections Library at Nuffield College, Oxford.
Works
Fiction
Charles Ashleigh, The Rambling Kid. Reprinted by Charles H. Kerr in 2004.
Poetry
Charles Ashleigh, "Poems," The Little Review, , 1–5. Charles Ashleigh, "A Miracle," , 54. Charles Ashleigh, "Once More - The Road," , 15. Charles Ashleigh, "Everett, November Fifth," Labor Defender, , 193.
Non-fiction
"The Poetry of Revolt," , 22-25
"New War For Old," and "Two Finds," , 11–12, 40–41.
"Everett Prosecution Forces Are Lining Up: Ted Kenedy's Bravery," Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine, Vol. 62, No. 2, 8–9.
"Everett's Bloody Sunday," The Masses, , 18–19.
"The Lumber Trust and Its Victims," International Socialist Review, Vol. 17, No. 9, 536–538.
"To Soviet Russia - An American Working Man Speaks," Industrial Pioneer, Vol. 1, No. 2, 46–47.
"Radio in Russia", The Radio Times, 4 January 1924, p.
Russia's Second Front in 1914-1916.
Translations
, Cement. Translated by A. S. Arthur and Charles Ashleigh. Max Heinz, Loretto, Sketches of a German Volunteer. Translated by Charles Ashleigh. Theodore Plivier, Revolt on the Pampas. Translated by Charles Ashleigh. Hans Behrend, The Real Rulers of Germany. Translated by Charles Ashleigh. Bertolt Brecht, "The Informer." Translated by Charles Ashleigh. New Writing, 113–120.
