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Styrene has been grafted onto cellulose in the form of cotton linters, cotton cloth, and rayon by ionizing radiation. Styrene was brought into intimate contact with cellulose by extension of the “inclusion” technique of Staudinger and Krässig, and graft copolymers were prepared by exposure to high energy electrons or to gamma‐rays from Co60. Substantial grafting was obtained by irradiation in air, nitrogen, or in vacuum. The products were purified by exhaustive extraction with benzene in a Soxhlet apparatus to remove the polystyrene homopolymer. The graft copolymers were characterized by removing the cellulose backbone by hydrolysis and determining the molecular weights of the residual polystyrene. Molecular weights of the grafted polystyrene were found to be considerably higher than those of the extracted homopolymer polystyrene or the polystyrene formed by irradiating styrene in bulk. Calculations based on the molecular weights of cellulose and polystyrene in the graft copolymer indicate that despite the substantial grafting, only one in 5,000–10,000 anhydroglucose units or one in 10–20 cellulose chains carried a grafted polystyrene chain.