Time for an editing update. Since I joined the social media crowd in August, some intriguing information has come to light about my father’s time in the Spanish Civil War. As I tease things out, with help from people I’ve met online, it seems that Jim Higgins was no ordinary soldier.

At first, when I heard him comment on one of his audiotapes, that he “wasn’t the average guy”, or that he “knew things others didn’t”, I pushed it aside. I knew deep down these weren’t idle comments, but I didn’t have any evidence of what he meant. If anything, he underplayed his role in his memoir, so no help there.

Now, it turns out, his cryptic comments mean something. 

When I first went on Facebook and Twitter, and published this blog, I thought the manuscript was pretty complete. Not. Well, the manuscript was complete, but there was much more editing to come. Not of his words so much, but rather the correct ordering of the chapters, and the need to tie the narrative together.

Since August, I have had several interesting discussions online and followed up on leads. I’ve also gone off on a few tangents, here, here, and also here, when I talked about meeting Tyler Wentzell, whose book on Edward Cecil-Smith, commander of the Mac-Paps, is now scheduled for the spring.

Tyler has been a brick, and since then he’s come to my apartment to pore over Dad’s archival documents. I learned a lot in that meeting and Tyler has been a wonderful sounding board for my thoughts. More concrete help came in the form of someone on FaceBook, unknown to me, with not much info on his profile, asking if I’d like help with the fact-checking.

Just who was this person who’d contacted me out of the blue? Well, it turned out he was an archivist with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and that he’d fact-checked a book I’d recently read and enjoyed, a New York Times bestseller about the Spanish Civil War, Spain in Our Hearts, by Adam Hochschild. I took notice. Then he mentioned he’d read, and loved, The Tall Soldier. That nailed it.

His name was Chris Brooks and he has just completed extensive fact-checking of Dad’s manuscript, mostly in the online Russian Archives (RGASPI). Archivists look for documentation that can support a narrative. Things like pay lists, training documents, exit interviews, assessments by superiors, that sort of thing.

The information Chris provided was a great help in finalizing the order of the chapters and in understanding more about my father’s time in Spain. His extensive timeline represents untold hours and days working on this. However, there remained a couple of rather large holes. 

Then, just when I thought we were finished, one more email from Chris. He’d done a deep dive into those archives, and found a document that broke the log-jam, and finally shed light on one of the big questions remaining. (We may never know the answer to the other, but I’m working on it.)

I am revising the manuscript based on Chris’s findings.  This involves the dreaded notes I was trying to steer clear of, despite knowing their importance. I know from feedback already that historians and academics are (and will be) interested in this memoir and I am compelled to get to the bottom of things as much as I can. And academics kind of have a hankering for foot notes. If you don’t, not to worry, they’ll all be at the end of the book.

As soon as I’ve finished this revision, I’ll be sending it off to Ray Hoff, whose father also fought in the Spanish Civil War, and who is the archivist for the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion here in Canada.

I have prepared a set of questions to guide Ray, and I know that I’ll learn more through his efforts. He’s already helped me out on a more casual basis, when he found out that my Dad’s father died when Dad was a baby, and that his mother remarried before Dad would have been conscious of this fact.

This means that the “father” Dad says was killed in the First World War from a zeppelin bomb, was, in fact, his stepfather. That’s the first foot note in Jim Higgins’ memoir. Who knows how many more there are to come, but I’m working away at it.

And, oh yes, I’ve found it necessary to write an addendum, based on new information that totally floored me; said she cryptically.

Yep, a bit of a chip off the old block. He’s not the only one who can be cryptic.

Stay tuned.

© Janette Higgins

NOW PUBLISHED: Fighting for Democracy: The True Story of Jim Higgins (1907-1982), A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War (2020) is available worldwide from Independent Bookstores, Chapters-Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Kindle version on Amazon. Orders of three or more: Friesen Press.

I encourage you to obtain it from your local Indie bookseller or library. And if you can leave a review or “star” it somewhere, like Amazon or Goodreads, that would be much appreciated!

Fighting for Democracy by Jim Higgins is the latest book about the Mac-Paps, Canadians in the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion, which was part of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Other books about Canadians in the Spanish Civil War include Not For King or Country by Tyler Wentzell , Mac-Pap by Ronald Liversedge with David Yorke and Renegades by Michael Petrou.