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Spanish Civil War Collection
The Spanish Civil War collection is a compilation of material documenting the U.S. literary and military involvement in Spain's fight against fascism. Emphasized are the American writers who participated in and reported the events and who interpreted their experiences through poetry, prose, and art. The collection comprises about 20 subcategories focused on members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, including: Edwin Rolfe, Milton Wolff, John Tisa, Frank Lister, Milton Felson, and John Gates. It includes books, broadsides, clippings, correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, serials, and miscellaneous items relating the experiences of American volunteers in Spain. The collection contains many references to the cultural and political context in which the Americans were placed, including posters and propaganda material. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library's Baskette Collection contains other examples of political activism and freedom of expression issues related to the Spanish Civil War.
[To search the finding aid for the Spanish Civil War Collection in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, please click here.]
Broadsides and Posters
The propaganda and visual material produced during the Spanish Civil War represents a significant component of the collection. The dates represented in this material are 1936-1939.
Spanish Civil War Photographs
Many photographs from the archives of Spanish Civil War participants and observers are in the collection.
Exhibitions
Materials from the collections were featured in the exhibition; “Other Weapons: Photography and Print Culture during the Spanish Civil War,” at the International Center for Photography from September 26, 2007 – January 6, 2008. To view the online version of the exhibition, please go to:
http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.2876513/k.9F74/Other_Weapons.htm
Materials were also used for the exhibition; “Magazines and War: Spanish Civil War Print Culture,” now found online at:
http://www.magazinesandwar.com/
Correspondence
A wealth of correspondence accompanied the Spanish Civil War. Here are some people whose writings are prominent in the collection:
Esther Blanc – served as a nurse in the 35th International Corps in Spain, as Esther Silverstein.
Milt Felson – was a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War from 1937 through most of 1938, serving first as a machine gunner and later an ambulance driver. Not long after the December 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, he was one of the half dozen American veterans of the Spanish Civil War to be recruited for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. His experiences in Spain included guerilla warfare and familiarity with current German and Italian military equipment and field strategy. Strong anti-fascist loyalties made him an ideal candidate for the new American intelligence service.
Len Fox – born in Melbourne, was a well respected Australian writer of political and historical works, poetry, short fiction, and plays. In 1935 he became the Victorian state secretary of the Movement Against War and Fascism. In 1939 he went to Sydney to work on the Labor Party newspaper Progress and the communist newspaper Tribune.
John Gates – volunteered in 1937 for service with the International Brigades in Spain. Starting as a private at Pozoblanco, he was rapidly promoted, becoming lieutenant–colonel at the age of 24, the highest ranking American officer in Spain. He was appointed Political Commissar of the 15th International Brigade. During World War II he joined the 101st Airborne and dropped repeatedly behind Nazi lines in Germany. Having joined the Communist Party at age 17, Gates eventually became the Editor–in–Chief of The Daily Worker. He was one of the Communist leaders convicted in 1949 under the Smith Act for; “conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the United States Government.” He resigned from the party in 1958 and applied for a presidential pardon in 1966 to President Johnson. He was eventually granted a full and unconditional pardon by President Nixon in 1970.
Irving Goff – became a hero in Spain when, with only limited training, he joined a behind–the–line guerilla outfit and successfully blew up bridges, trains, and fortifications. He was very effective with the OSS during World War II, where his guerilla experience and Party comradeship assisted him in linking the OSS and the Allied Forces with the Italian partisans.
Fred Keller – Political Commissar of the Lincoln Battalion and hero of the Spanish Civil War, swam the Ebro three times during the great battle and was a legend for his uncanny skill in avoiding capture by the Fascists.
Arnold Keoseian – joined the International Brigades in 1938 as a private in the Lincoln–Washington Battalion, taking part in the Ebro campaign a month after he arrived in Spain. He left Spain after the International Brigades were retired, returning to the United States where he remained active in antifascist and related struggles.
Frank Lister
Frederick Lutz – was Political Commissar of the Lincoln Battalion. He and Tisa had been political acquaintances in the United States before the war, and became close friends in Spain.
Virginia Malbin – went to Spain in August 1937 with four other social workers on a fact finding mission sponsored by the Social Workers Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy. They turned their attention to the situation of thousands of refugees in the Republic, especially the children. After her six week mission, she returned to the United States and began public speaking tours to raise funds and inform people of the social workers' findings. She returned to Spain in 1938 to continue her work with refugee children, and the evacuation of the wounded members of the International Brigades. Her husband, Barney Malbin, was the Chief American Medical Officer in Barcelona.
Edwin Rolfe – author of three volumes of poetry and a history of the American participation in the Spanish Civil War. He grew up in New York and began publishing while still in high school. Active in New York labor, literary, and theater circles, Rolfe established numerous close friendships with other artists and activists. In 1937, he went to Spain to join the struggle against fascism, and became the editor of Volunteer for Liberty, the English language magazine of the International Brigades. In Spain he met Alvah Bessie, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and a number of others whose letters are included in the collection.
Herman "Gabby" Rosenstein – a political official in his company in Spain.
John Tisa – one of the first American volunteers to reach Spain, most likely in the second group of arrivals. He was also probably the last American volunteer to leave, except for the prisoners still in jail. He was in Spain from January 1937 until February 1939. In the Fall of 1938 his assignment at International Brigade Headquarters in Barcelona was to assemble detailed, complete documentation on the military and political role of American volunteers in Spain. In the Spring of 1938 he became the editor of Volunteer for Liberty, succeeding Edwin Rolfe. With respect to the Spanish Civil War, Tisa's writing and editing is particularly important.
Milton Wolff – the last Commander of the Lincoln–Washington Battalian, National Commander of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a friend of Ernest Hemingway and the subject of one of his most famous short essays. Rolfe was himeslf an accomplished writer of expository and polemical prose. He arrived in Spain in March 1937 and entered the International Brigades as a private. By November he was a captain, and early the next year became commander of the Lincoln–Washington Battalion (ultimately as a major) until the International Brigades were retired at the end of 1938. He participated in every major action except Jarama and the first day of the second Belchite. At the age of 23, Wolff was the youngest field commander in the International Brigades, and he held the highest rank among American volunteers who returned from Spain.
Additional information regarding the Spanish Civil War and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade may be found at:
Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
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