perm.address
Westmoreland,Va;
for August Wiscasset, Maine.
August 2 '53

Dear Matthew,

I'm glad you are tackling this subject as it seems literary and notional to me that the/history of that period has been thoroughly misunderstood. I find that most people 's idea of their own past and you'll probably find nine school by hindsight. notions is highly inaccurate, but here are a few points that may be helpful:

AS I remember it my confidence and interest in Marxism waned somewhat after the first excitement of the news of the Russian Revolution (as reflected in "Three Soldiers and One Man's Initiation") and then waned still more after "The Red October". It was first and foremost based on the pacifist and anti-militarist side of it. With me the theory, which now seems so childishly false, that capitalism bred wars died hard. It might be useful for you to look up early copies of the New Masses (20-21?) You'll remember that it was started as a nonsectarian rev. magazine to renew the anti-militarist agitation which had spelled the doom of Max Eastman's Masses. Egmont Arends is he still living? He was a worth writing to - who was an editor. It was captured for the C.P. by Mike Gold, Gropper et al. by the now familiar technique of infiltration. Next comes THE New Playwrights 'Theatre. I'm sure you can find copies of the plays and manifestoes etc. At the beginning of that period John Howard Lawson was further from the C.P. than I was. Unfortunately the only people connected with that organization other than myself (Basshe and Ed Massey) who were not captured by the commies are dead. Paul Sifton, who wrote "The Belt for its production, might be worth writing to. He's probably working for the C.I.O."

Washington.

3

From that time I began to try to keep my name of the
commie letterheads etc. It was a gradual process, and the
whole picture became confusing during the Spanish Civil War.
With Suzanne Lafollette and several others I tried to start a
committee to put forward the Spanish Republic's side of the story.
I had spent a good deal of time in Spain and had many friends
there. At the time of Franco's putsch the official CP hardly
existed there and the Trotzkists were negligible. You should
write Suzanne Lafollette and Frank Hanighen (edits Human Events,
a Washington dope sheet) for details of the skirmishing
with the comrades that went on over that committee which they managed
eventually to paralyze and dissolve. I finally went to
Spain with Hemingway and Joris Ivens to do a documentary film
which would put forward the republic's side of the story. Before
I sailed Carlo Tresca told me exactly what was going to happen, but
I felt he was being prejudiced by his anarchist's antimarxist
partisanship. Of course everything turned out as he'd prophesied.
Ivens (a highly capable cinematographist) turned out to be a
party member and the film 'Spain in Flames' appeared without my
name as a typical fellowtraveller document. When I arrived in
Valencia I found that one of my best friends had just been shot by one
of the many local gestapo and the trip turned into a Kafka-like
performance partly reflected in the end of 'Adventures of A Young
Man' Evan Shipman is a charming fellow, (do give him my best
when you see him), but he was very much influenced, naturally, by
the forced around Hemingway. I left Spain feeling that a country
dominated by the Communists would be as bad as one dominated by
the Fascists. See Common Sense for the period. By the way all
through these years,

4

Common Sense roughly expressed my state of mind. It was the only
periodical with which I felt in sympathy.
direct you to

I am sorry I had to XXXXX so many of my own works, but
as I put down my ideas fairly copiously as I went along, there's
no other way. Have you read Orwell on the Spanish war? We were
pretty much in agreement when we met in Barcelona. Unfortunately
that was the only time I met him. He is a man I have since come
to admire immensely. The later literature of Spain on the Spanish War
is large. The Memoirs of El Campesino, now translated into
English, are particularly illuminating.

Write me if you have any specific questions. I hope you
will look into the periodical literature of the time with an
open mind because the passions of faction have since transformed
every incident. So far as I know no above the battle history of
the Spanish Civil War has yet been written. Beware of del Vayo.
Luis Araquistain if he's still living is I believe an honest man.

So is Arturo BXXXIX Barea.