University of Delaware Library

Special Collections Department

Ernest Hemingway In His Time

The Spanish Civil War

Ernest Hemingway maintained a lifelong fascination with war and with Spain. The Spanish Civil War provided him the opportunity to indulge himself in both these areas. Hemingway spent four separate tours in Spain as a war correspondent and was there for nearly eight months during 1937 - 1938. Hemingway became a strong supporter of the Loyalist cause; he worked on the film The Spanish Earth and gave fundraising speeches on behalf of the Republican government in the United States. Hemingway would also use his war experiences as the basis for some of his most ambitious literary work, notably the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls and the play The Fifth Column.

A Play,
carbon typescript, undated, 85 pp.

This typescript is Hemingway's carbon copy of an early draft version of The Fifth Column.

The Fifth Column: A Play in Three Acts The Fifth Column: a Play in Three Acts
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938.

Special salesman's "dummy" copy containing sample text, binding, and an early version of the dust wrapper.

The Fifth Column: a Play in Three Acts
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.

First edition of Hemingway's play set in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War.

F.A.I. endpapers Hemingway's disclaimer
The Spanish Earth
Cleveland: The J.B. Savage Company, 1938.

This curious publication contains a transcript of Hemingway's narration for the soundtrack of the film The Spanish Earth, a documentary released to raise funds for the Loyalist cause. A Cleveland high school student, Jasper Woods, persuaded Hemingway to allow him to publish the text of the narration as a book. Hemingway was incensed with the first issue of the book. In addition to having endpapers which depicted a large F.A.I. [Federación Anarquista Iberica] banner--the F.A.I. was a radical Spanish anarchist organization--the book also appeared to give Hemingway credit for the film which he felt should have gone to its director and photographer. The publisher quickly published a second issue in which the F.A.I. banners were replaced by plain tan endpapers and a disclaimer by Hemingway, which he had dictated to Woods in a telegram, was printed on the rear endpaper.

Ernest Hemingway to Lehman Wood,
telegram, July 20, 1938, 1 p.

Telegram from Hemingway to Jasper Wood's father, a Cleveland attorney.

New Masses New Masses, 30 (February 14, 1939).

Contains "On the American Dead in Spain."

Among Friends, 1 (Spring 1938).

Published by the friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, this issue contained Hemingway's article, "Luis Quintanilla: Artist and Soldier." Hemingway first met the Spanish artist Quintanilla in Paris in 1922; in 1934 Hemingway assisted in obtaining Quintanilla's release from prison where he had been jailed on revolutionary charges.

Men in the Ranks, the Story of 12 Americans in Spain,
by Joseph North.
New York: Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1939.

Ernest Hemingway wrote the forward to this book about Americans who fought on behalf of the Loyalist cause during the Spanish Civil War.

Men at War
[Hollywood]: The Pickwick Book Shop, and [New York]: The Scribner Book Store [n.d.]

Publisher's announcement for the limited first edition of this 1942 collection of war stories edited by Hemingway.

 Men at War: publisher's announcement

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