Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War (67 page)

“
THE PICTURE WAS BEYOND PRAISE
”: FSF to EH July 13, 1937, and FSF to Maxwell Perkins, c. July 15, 1937, in Baker,
EH
, p. 316.

“comradely greetings”: EH to André Malraux, c. May 22, 1937, JFK.

The keynote speech: Koltsov’s speech is reproduced in Preston,
WSSD
, p. 194.

Robert Capa and Gerda Taro: Descriptions of the conference from Stephen Spender,
World Within World
, pp. 261–64; Roman Karmen and Boris Makasseyev,
K Sobitiyam V Ispani
(newsreel film), July 1937; Schaber,
Taro
, pp. 221–23. My translation of Garro.

Capa told Ted Allan: Allan,
Ted
, chapter 2: Gerda.

André Chamson, in fact: Spender,
World
, pp. 265–66.

as the congress delegates were just applauding: Malcolm Cowley in Aznar Soler and Schneider,
Il congreso internacional de escritores antifascistas,
p. 362; GT photo, ICP.

“The town of Brunete”: Official communiqué quoted in Matthews, “Madrid Defenders Open New Attack,”
New York Times,
July 7, 1937.

Racing out of the auditorium: GT, photographs from Brunete, ICP; Léon Moussinac, “Hommage à Gerda Taro,”
Regards
, August 5, 1937.

On July 8, Jay Allen: Jay Allen, intro to
Death in the Making
.

“a circus of intellectuals”: Spender,
World
, p. 264.

Barea and Ilsa weren’t sorry: Barea,
FR
, p. 683.

in his bunker: Ibid., pp. 681–82.

Even Gerda’s anxieties: Schaber,
Taro
, p. 252.

Capa and Gerda went dancing: Elisabeth Freundlich,
The Traveling Years
, pp. 52–53. Schaber,
Taro
, p. 234.

at the end of her rope: De la Mora,
Splendor
, pp. 327–28.

At dinner with Claud Cockburn: Jay Allen, preface to
Death in the Making
(unpaged).

“Tomorrow I’ll get up at six”: Schaber,
Taro
, p. 237.

Allan had resumed his puppylike attendance: Allan,
Ted
, chapter 2.

“In case we do somehow get out”: Whelan,
Capa
, p. 122.

on Sunday she asked Allan to come with her: The account of GT’s experience at the battle of Brunete comes from Allan,
Ted
, chapter 2, and Schaber,
Taro
, pp. 239–42.

Fleeing from airborne machine-gun fire: Jacinto Antón, “Te has cargado la francesa!”
El Pais
, July 12, 2009. The driver of the first tank, Aníbal González, didn’t even realize he had hit anyone.

“Keep her comfortable”: Irene Goldin, interview, in Trisha Ziff’s film
The Mexican Suitcase
.

Richard de Rochemont’s telephone call: Except as noted, details in this section are from Whelan,
Capa
, Schaber,
Taro
, pp. 243–60, Louis Aragon,
Lettres françaises
, May 27–June 3, 1954, Eva Besnyö interview with Richard Whelan, ICP.

“The war photographer’s most fervent wish”: RC to Peter Koester, in July 27, 1938, ICP.

“A FRENCH JOURNALIST”:
L’Humanité
, July 27, 1937. My translation.

the government had had 20,000 casualties: Thomas,
SCW
, pp. 693–96, Beevor,
Battle for Spain
, pp. 282–85.

“no middle-class child ever walked”: De la Mora,
Splendor
, p. 7.

“She grated on me”: Barea,
FR
, p. 684.

Constancia, however, had forbidden: Fox,
War and Exile
, p. 61, Fischer,
Men and Politics
, pp. 457–60.

Ernest Hemingway paid a visit: The Hemingway-Eastman contretemps is reported in
The New York Times
, August 14, 1937; “Talk of the Town,”
The New Yorker
, August 28, 1937; Baker,
EH
, pp. 317–18.

a new contract from NANA: John Wheeler to EJH, June 8, 1937, and August 10, 1937, JFK.

“I promised them I would be back”: EH to Mrs. Paul Pfeiffer, August 2, 1937, in Baker,
Selected
, p. 460.

Hemingway obligingly gave them: Baker,
EH
, p. 317.

“He is living in a world so entirely his own”: FSF to MP, September 3, 1937, in Turnbull,
Letters
, p. 275.

Throughout the past month: MG, “On Apocryphism,”
Paris Review
79, p. 291.

Hellman wasn’t in good spirits: Martinson,
Lillian Hellman
, pp. 128–29.

Martha didn’t like Hellman: Gellhorn on Hellman, MG, “Spanish War Notes,” October 15, 1937, Hellman on Gellhorn, Hellman,
Unfinished
, p. 76, Parker on Gellhorn, and Gellhorn on Parker, in Meade,
Dorothy Parker
, pp. 282 and 284.

Hemingway had drinks or dinner with them: SWM to EH, September 20, 1937, JFK, in Miller,
Letters
, pp. 201–2.

“a horse that has escaped”: MG in Moorehead,
Gellhorn
, p. 133.

“your friends got killed”: MG in ibid., p. 134.

Hemingway went further: EH, unpublished first-draft lede to dispatch 16,
EH Review
, p. 59.

a man’s body had been found:
Le Matin
, September 6, 1937.

The NKVD’s Mobile Group: Preston,
WSSD
, p. 84.

He made good his own escape: Gazur,
Orlov
, pp. 164–66; Krivitsky,
In Stalin’s Secret Service
, pp. 181–82.

Franco’s inner circle had been breached: Seale and McConville,
Philby
, p. 89. While Krivitsky may not have known Philby’s
name
, he was aware of his mission and background.

He tossed off two glasses of wine: Barea,
FR
, p. 695.

“a dictatorship under democratic rules”: Negrín in Azaña,
Obras Completas
, vol. IV, p. 786, quoted in Thomas,
SCW
, p. 750.

Ilsa sat at the piano: Barea,
FR
, p. 698.

Flying down from Barcelona to Valencia: Matthews, “Success Seen in Aragon,”
New York Times
, September 8, 1937.

“sick with anger”: MG to ER, July 3–4, 1937, in Moorehead,
Selected
, p. 54.

“proud as a goat”: Gellhorn, “Men Without Medals,”
Collier’s
, January 15, 1938, p. 10.

There wouldn’t be any inns: EH, dispatch 14,
HR
, p. 53; SWM to EH, September 20, 1937, in Miller,
Letters
, pp. 201–2.

Hemingway got a call: Gazur,
Orlov
, pp. 130–31.

Hemingway, Matthews, and Martha set off: Szurek,
The Shattered Dream
, pp. 144–48; MG, “Spanish War Notes,” undated itinerary labeled “Teruel Trip,” BU. William Braasch Watson, in two articles in
North Dakota Quarterly
, “Investigating Hemingway: The Story” and “Investigating Hemingway: The Trip” (Summer 1991 and Winter 1991, respectively), proposes that instead of a trip to Alicante from Madrid in early November, Hemingway made a clandestine return trip to Alfambra to visit Chrost; but as proof he uses a safe-conduct issued for the relevant dates by the Army of the Centre (whose territory was Madrid and environs), not the Army of the Levante (whose territory was Teruel and Alfambra). In this case Occam’s Razor says Hemingway did go to Alicante, not on a second run to Alfambra. Watson has, however, unearthed a wealth of relevant detail about the cars Hemingway used, what kind of mileage they got, where he garaged them, and how much it cost; for these things alone, the articles would be worth reading.

The correspondents spent their first night: Itinerary and dates, MG, “Spanish War Notes” (“Teruel Trip”); EH, dispatches 14 and 15,
HR7,
pp. 51–55; Gellhorn, “Men Without Medals,”
Collier’s
, January 15, 1938; Szurek,
Shattered Dream
, pp. 144–48; Matthews, “Loyalists Close Teruel Front Gap,”
New York Times
, September 26, 1937.

In the lounge of the Bedford Hotel: In addition to Whelan,
Capa
, sources are “Capa, Photographer of War, Tells of ‘Finest Picture,’”
New York World-Telegram
, September 1, 1937; Allan, “Aftermath,”
Ted
; and Capa,
Death
.

They had patched up the shell holes: Matthews, “Madrid Lays Plans for Winter Siege,”
New York Times
, September 25, 1937.

the rooms he and Martha now checked in to: William Braasch Watson, “Investigating Hemingway,”
North Dakota Quarterly
, vol. 59, no. 1, Winter 1991, note, p. 67. Watson references the room receipt.

“dead angle”: Matthews,
Education
, p. 122.

“you never hear the one”: EH, dispatch 15,
HR
, p. 55.

The new, professional order: EH, dispatch 14,
HR
, p. 53; Barea,
FR
, p. 697.

the shops, astonishingly, were full: Matthews, “Madrid Lays Plans,”
loc. cit.

“the Great Adolescent”: Alvah Bessie in Moorehead,
Gellhorn
, p. 136.

the opus 33 mazurka, number 4: Records for both these pieces are specified in Hemingway’s props list for
The Fifth Column
(reproduced in the 2008 edition, p. ix).

To get a feel for the territory: EH, dispatch 16,
HR
, pp. 57–58; Gellhorn, “Men Without Medals,”
Collier’s
, January 15, 1937.

The lack of anything to report: MG, “Spanish War Notes,” October 15, 1937; Hellman,
Unfinished
, pp. 100–103; Moorehead,
Gellhorn
, p. 135. Hellman’s account of the evening comes in for withering criticism from Gellhorn in “On Apocryphism” (
Paris Review
79, pp. 280–304), some of which is deserved and on point. However, Gellhorn maintains, incorrectly, to have never heard of Contemporary Historians, implying it is a mendacious invention of Hellman’s; she also says there were no bullfights in Madrid during the war—which would have surprised General Miaja, who is shown in news photographs attending them. Sometimes her feelings get the better of her; this account is an attempt to reconcile Hellman’s and Gellhorn’s versions.

“Mr. Scrooby”: MG in Moorehead,
Gellhorn
, p. 137. Much later, Hemingway and his fourth wife, Mary, used the nickname “Mr. Scrooby” for Hemingway’s penis.

“It would be pleasant”: J. Donald Adams, “Hemingway’s First Novel in Eight Years,”
New York Times Book Review
, October 17, 1937, p. 2.

“puerile slaughter”: Sinclair Lewis, “Glorious Dirt,”
Newsweek
, October 8, 1937, p. 34.

“the necessary murder”: “Spain,” was published as a five-page pamphlet by Faber in May 1937, with proceeds from its sale going to the British medical committee in Spain.

At one point Hemingway had wanted: EH,
Fifth Column
draft fragment, item 80, JFK.

“Don’t be kind”: Quotations in the preceding pages are from Hemingway,
The Fifth Column
and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War
, pp. 3, 23, 38, 39, 42, 57, 61, 65, 66, 75, 83, and 84.

Mikhail Koltsov mentioned it: Koltsov,
Ispanskii dnevnik
(November 6, 1937), p. 561, in Baker,
EH
, p. 624n.

a long story for
Collier’s
: Gellhorn, “Men Without Medals,”
Collier’s
, January 15, 1938.

the second piece of hers they’d taken: Gellhorn subsequently claimed (
The Face of War
, p. 16) that after this article
Collier’s
“put my name on the masthead.” This is not quite true. It
was
after its publication—but not until the issue of October 28, 1939, which listed her as correspondent from Russia. In the event, she didn’t go to Russia, and her correspondent credit was changed to “Scandinavia” in the issue of November 25, 1939, to reflect the assignment she then undertook to cover the Winter War in Finland. However, her name did appear, along with those of several other contributors, on the
cover
of the July 17, 1937, issue, the one in which her first
Collier’s
article, “Only the Shells Whine,” appeared.

“no ambitious woman”: EH to Bernard Berenson, May 27, 1953, in Meyers, p. 318.

“So now the long winter”: MG, “Spanish War Notes,” October 26, 1937, BU, partially quoted in Moorehead,
Gellhorn
, pp. 135–36.

“stronger and stronger”: Matthews, “Madrid Lays Plans for Winter Siege,”
New York Times.
September 25, 1937.

Prieto, in fact, had tried: Preston,
SCW
, p. 272.

Hitler had recently alarmed: Hitler’s “Hossbach Memorandum,” in Thomas,
SCW
, p. 725, and Orlov,
The Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes
, p. 238.

a memorandum to the Italian ambassador: Franco to Roberto Cantalupo, April 4, 1937, in Preston,
SCW
, p. 274.

“a brilliant gay lazy man”: MG to ER, February 5, 1939, in Moorehead,
Selected
, pp. 72–73.

a democratic dictatorship: Negrín to Azaña and Araquistain, in Thomas,
SCW
, p. 750.

“This will do us a lot of harm”: Fischer,
Men and Politics
, p. 422.

“discover the possible ramifications”: Berdah, p. 19. My translation.

Now he listened patiently: Barea,
FR
, pp. 705–7; photographs of AB and Lobo at the Reina Victoria, Barea archives.

On November 7, the anniversary: In addition to MG’s “Spanish War Notes” (see below) other sources here are Marion Merriman,
Robert Hale Merriman: American Commander in Spain,
pp. 184–85, and photographs and film of the November 7 luncheon provided by Alan Warren.

Things were merrier in Madrid: Matthews, “Gay Madrid Marks Seige Anniversary,”
New York Times
, November 8, 1937.