Hemingway reports from Spanish Civil War

[sailor]

I am interested in factual reports by Ernest Hemingway on the Spanish Civil War. Battles covered, places, dates, etc.

Wikipedia says “In 1936, Hemingway traveled to Spain in order to report on the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance”. Where can I find these reports? How long was he in Spain? Did he report for other organizations?

Any leads and information are welcome.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I don’t know of a source for the complete series of articles he wrote, but many are collected in http://www.amazon.com/Line-Ernest-Hemingway-Selected-Dispatches/dp/0684839059/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242229654&sr=1-1

By-Line Ernest Hemingway: Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades

[smiling_bandit]

Interestingly, there is some nasty history here that people tend to forget, because people of the time ignored it. Hemingway was, ironically, functionally reporting for the Stalinist Communists who effectively ran and controlled the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War, and he knew it. He was actually recruited by a fellow literary man (damn if I can’t find the name somewhere), a very great (arguably superior) writer who was largely forgotten because he realized what the Republicans were rapidly becoming. When the Communists decided they had Hemingway and actually killed off some of the other writer’s friends, well, he had a “moment of moral clarity”, got depressed, and left. On returning home, he was ironically abandoned by both his “friend” Hemingway and his class of fashionable leftists.

Interestingly, I understand Hemingway actually reported some of the facts straight, though he definitely slanted his coverage in favor fo the Republicans who feted him and invited him and gave him such coverage.

[sailor]

@smiling_bandit

Interestingly, there is some nasty history here that people tend to forget, because people of the time ignored it. Hemingway was, ironically, functionally reporting for the Stalinist Communists who effectively ran and controlled the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War, and he knew it. He was actually recruited by a fellow literary man (damn if I can’t find the name somewhere), a very great (arguably superior) writer who was largely forgotten because he realized what the Republicans were rapidly becoming. When the Communists decided they had Hemingway and actually killed off some of the other writer’s friends, well, he had a “moment of moral clarity”, got depressed, and left. On returning home, he was ironically abandoned by both his “friend” Hemingway and his class of fashionable leftists.

Interestingly, I understand Hemingway actually reported some of the facts straight, though he definitely slanted his coverage in favor fo the Republicans who feted him and invited him and gave him such coverage.

I do not quite understand this. Can you explain, expand and provide some cites?

[Xema]

Here’s Wiki on Hemingway and the Spanish civil war (not much, but perhaps useful):

In 1936, Hemingway traveled to Spain in order to report on the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance. While there, Hemingway broke his friendship with John Dos Passos because, despite warnings, Dos Passos continued to report on the atrocities of not only the fascist Nationalists whom Hemingway disliked, but also those of the elected and radicalized left-leaning Republicans whom he favored; characteristically, Hemingway spread a story that Dos Passos had fled Spain out of cowardice.[19][20] In this context Hemingway’s colleague and associate Herbert Matthews, who would become more well known for his favorable reports on Fidel Castro, showed a similar predilection for the Republican side as Hemingway. Hemingway, who was a convert to Catholicism during his marriage to his wife Pauline, began to question his religion at this time, eventually leaving the church (though friends indicate that he had “funny ties” to Catholicism for the rest of his life). The war also strained Hemingway’s marriage. Pauline Pfieffer was a devout Catholic and, as such, sided with the fascist, pro-Catholic regime of Franco, whereas Hemingway mostly supported the Republican government, for all his criticisms of it. During this time, Hemingway wrote a little known essay, The Denunciation, which would not be published until 1969 within a collection of stories, the Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War. The story seems autobiographical, suggesting that Hemingway might have been an informant for the Republic as well as a weapons instructor during the war.[20]

[smiling_bandit]

@sailor

I do not quite understand this. Can you explain, expand and provide some cites?

Xema pretty much got it. The thing about Hemingway was that he essentially loved the adventure more than anything, and was often willing to do some disreputable things to experience it. In the case of Dos Passos (I can never remember that guy’s name), his semi-public rejection of his friend’s growing concern really hurt Dos Passos, and Hemingway’s notoriety significantly raised the public esteem of the Republican cause. But the hard-line Communists were really in control of it, and even today it’s hard for some to acknowledge that the supposed “pro-democracy” Republican cause was rapidly and irreversably becoming a tyranny. Granted, Franco and the Fascists were not nice, but the nature of the false belief makes a serious, honest appraisal of the two sides almost impossible - nearly everyone who cares has their official line and refuse to even consider the other. So even today, Hemingway’s actions affect our views of history.

It’s worth noting that George Orwell had a brutally clear-eyed first-hand account of what was happening, even as he served as a volunteer for the Republicans. He rapidly realized that he was supporting tyranny and returned to England.

[sailor]

@smiling_bandit

Hemingway was, ironically, functionally reporting for the Stalinist Communists who effectively ran and controlled the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War, and he knew it.

OK, I take that to mean his reports were slanted in favor of the Republican government.

@smiling_bandit

He was actually recruited by a fellow literary man (damn if I can’t find the name somewhere), a very great (arguably superior) writer who was largely forgotten because he realized what the Republicans were rapidly becoming.

Dos Passos “recruited” Hemingway? What does that mean? Recruited him for what?

@smiling_bandit

When the Communists decided they had Hemingway and actually killed off some of the other writer’s friends, well, he had a “moment of moral clarity”, got depressed, and left.

What friends did they kill and why? I don’t get all this.

[Captain_Amazing]

@sailor

What friends did they kill and why? I don’t get all this.

John dos Passos and Ernest Hemmingway both went to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War. They were both sympathetic to the Republicans. Dos Passos was friends with Jose Robles, a Spanish academic and activist living in the United States. When the Civil War started, Robles was back in Spain and supporting the Republican government, but also critical of the Soviet Union and Stalinism. Robles disappeared, and it came out that he had been arrested for being a Francoist spy and executed. When word of that got out, Hemmingway and dos Passos had a fight about it, Hemmingway saying that Robles’s execution was justifable. The two of them became enemies, and dos Passos left Spain and became right wing.

[sailor]

Thanks.

Getting back to the OP, I’d be interested in Hemingway’s reports. Whether he reported from the front or from the rear, dates, topics, etc.