For those intrigued by Jim Higgins’ memoir, Fighting for Democracy, and who want to learn more, have a skip through this list of books by and about Canadians in the Spanish Civil War.
I’ll bet there’s at least one that piques your interest. Cooped up Covid hostages with low budgets will be entertained by the free one from Athabasca University Press.
Most of the newer books can be ordered through independent bookstores and are available in the usual places. It’s also worth asking your library. If they don’t have it they may be able to get it through an interlibrary loan. Oh, and make sure to check out Abebooks for used copies.
Here goes!
BOOKS ABOUT THE MAC-PAPS
The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion by Victor Hoar with Mac Reynolds.Toronto: The Copp Clark Publishing Company, 1969 (republished with a subtitle “The Canadian Contingent in the Spanish Civil War” by McGill-Queens UniversityPress in 1987)
English professor, Victor Hoar, wrote the book. It references accounts written in 1939 by returned Spanish Civil War veterans, including Jim Higgins. The other “author” credited, Mac Reynolds, interviewed thirty-five veterans for a CBC oral history project in 1964-65.
I suspect Jim was asked to participate in Reynolds’ project but refused — he told a reporter who interviewed him when Franco died in 1975, that he’d turned down earlier requests for interviews. I just checked and Abebooks had one copy of the original edition but it could easily disappear.
Canadian Volunteers: Spain 1936-39 by William Beeching.Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1989
The second book about the Mac-Paps was written from the veterans’ point of view. William Beeching was a Communist Party of Canada member who fell out with the party over the course of writing the book. He, too, references Jim Higgins’ story. When I was at LAC in Ottawa researching my father, I got waylaid by Beeching’s correspondence, revealing part of the saga. Usually available at Abebooks.
The Gallant Cause: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Mark Zuehlke. Vancouver/Toronto: Whitecap Books, 1996
The Gallant Cause draws on factual accounts, but is brought “vividly to life,” because Zuehlke’s account straddles the line with historical fiction. For example, Jim Higgins’ rescue of Manuel Alvarez is an embellished/combined version of those written by Alvarez and Higgins. A good introduction for those who want an easy, entertaining read that brings the Mac-Pap story to life for the lay reader. Several available at Abebooks.
Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War by Michael Petrou. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008
This account of the Mac-Paps is an important academic work based on a PhD thesis written by Michael Petrou. He drew heavily from what were then newly available documents in Russian archives, hence much new and enlightening information about the volunteers. Petrou is a writer (for Macleans, among other publications) so the book is accessible, whilst offering lots for scholars and aficionados to chew on. Available new here. It’s also available used at Abebooks.
MAC-PAP MEMOIRS
Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War by Ronald Liversedge, David Yorke ed. Vancouver: New Star Books, 2013
This memoir by Ronald Liversedge, was written in the 1960s. David Yorke, then a young university student, visited Liversedge about some unrelated research he was doing. As he was leaving, Liversedge thrust his unpublished ms into his hands. It lay dormant until Yorke, who became a labour lawyer, retired and prepped it for publication. Available new here. Used copies on Abebooks seem more expensive, but keep looking.
Note: Ronald Liversedge also wrote Recollections of the On to Ottawa Trek. Victor Hoar was editor and it was published by McClelland and Stewart in 1973.
A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War by Douglas Patrick Stevens. Athabasca (Alberta): Athabasca University Press, 2000
Douglas Patrick Stevens’ experience was unique and not only because he was an Armenian Canadian who served with the Lincoln Battalion. Well written and entertaining. Free to download from the Athabasca website.
A Chance to Fight Hitler, A Canadian Volunteer in the Spanish Civil War by David Gouter. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2018
McMaster University professor, David Gouter, who wrote, researched and documented A Chance to Fight Hitler, is married to the granddaughter of Hans Ibing, a German immigrant to Canada who died in 2009 at over 100 years old. Late in life, Ibing wrote some reminiscences and Gouter also encouraged him to talk about his experience. The striking title says it all. Available here.
The Tall Soldier: My 40-Year Search for the Man Who Saved my Life by Manuel Alvarez. Vancouver: New Star Books, 1983
The Tall Soldier is a wonderful book: A compelling story of a resourceful, street smart boy growing up in wartime Spain whose dogged perseverance leads him to finally find his saviour, Jim Higgins, in Canada. It’s hugely deserving of the high praise given it by Canada’s preeminent book reviewer of the time, William French.
It can be hard to find but keep checking for a reasonably priced used copy at Abe Books. Also, you may be able to obtain it through interlibrary loan. Used copies of the translated version, El Soldado Alto, can be found in Spain. If you’re really lucky, you may find the original published by Virgo Press in 1980.
Fighting for Democracy: The True Story of Jim Higgins (1907-1982), A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War by Jim Higgins with Janette Higgins. Friesen Press 2020
The reason for my website! Order Fighting for Democracy from Independent Bookstores, Chapters-Indigo, Barnes & Noble/Nook, and Amazon. Kindle version on Amazon. Orders of three or more: Friesen Press. Also available worldwide from independent bookstores and any country’s Amazon.
MAC-PAP BIOGRAPHIES
Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War by Tyler Wentzell.Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020
This fascinating biography of the commander of the Mac-Paps, Edward Cecil-Smith, was written by Tyler Wentzell, an historian with an interest in military history. What stands out for me is how Cecil-Smith, a Christian, is drawn to communism.
I found it eye opening that in the 1930s many Protestant ministers and church goers were involved in social justice causes with the communists, including the Rev. W. G. Brown whose election campaign Jim Higgins worked on in Saskatoon in 1939. Goes to show how much Cold War propaganda had infiltrated my (our) thinking. Available here. Used copies are turning up at Abebooks.
As well, watch for Wentzell’s upcoming biography of William Krehm, a Canadian who, like George Orwell, was attached to the POUM Militia in Spain.
NORMAN BETHUNE
Several books have been written about Montreal surgeon Norman Bethune, famous for setting up mobile blood-transfusion units on the front lines in Spain, and for supporting Mao Tse-tung’s communists in China. I have not read them (someday!) but they include:
Norman Bethune in Spain by David Lethbridge. Sussex Academic Press, 2013. Available here.
Phoenix: The Life of Norman Bethune by Roderick Stewart and Sharon Stewart. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012. Available here.
Extraordinary Canadians: Norman Bethune by Adrienne Clarkson. Penguin Canada, 2009. Available here.
The Politics of Passion: Norman Bethune’s Writing and Art by Norman Bethune and Larry Hannant. U of T Press 1998. Available here.
Check for used copies of any of these Bethune books at Abebooks. Bethune was a popular subject. See more here.
FICTION
Not in My Father’s Footsteps by Terrence Rundle West. Burnstown: General Store Publishing House, 2011
A fictional account of two friends in Montreal who suffer through the Great Depression — you really get a sense of how endless those ten years were; it’s a bit of a slog. The friends, one Jewish, one Roman Catholic, end up on opposite sides in the Spanish Civil War.
Rundle West’s story brings out the fact of (worldwide) Jewish support for the Republican side and how, on the other side, the Roman Catholic Church supported the Nationalists led by Franco. This explains why few Mac-Pap volunteers came from Quebec.
I particularly enjoyed the author’s approach to the Spanish Civil War section of the novel. It moved at a quick pace. The ebook is available here. Lots of used copies at Abebooks.
This Time a Better Earth by Ted Allan: A Critical Edition edited and with an introduction by Bart Vautor. University of Ottawa Press, 2015
Ted Allan’s best-selling fictional account of a Canadian volunteer was published in 1939. I commend Bart Vautor for breathing new life into it. I haven’t read it yet, but suspect it’s a more comprehensive approach to the Spanish Civil War than Hemingway’s story of an American volunteer in For Whom the Bell Tolls which covers a few days of isolated guerilla warfare. We’ll see. Available here.
Side Note: I found a fascinating thesis about Allan’s book by Ale Batista Tejada at the University of Salamanca. He explores the relationship between Ted Allan and the famous war photographer, Gerda Taro, who was tragically killed by a bomb, and then relates it to the fictional account Allan gives in This Time a Better Earth. Emotional stuff.
Here’s the link to Ale Batista Tejada’s thesis. Scroll down the page to read it in case you can’t download it.
OTHER
Live Souls: Citizens and Volunteers of Civil War Spain by Serge Alternês and Alec Wainman. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press 2015
This book is mostly civilian photographs taken by Alec Wainman, a British Medical Unit volunteer. Wainman later emigrated to Canada and after he died, his son John Wainman, who uses the pen name Serge Alternês, tracked the photos down to a basement in London England.
After publication, Wainman/Alternês heard the Jim Higgins/Manuel Alvarez story and figured out the boy in the photograph on page 238 had to be Manuel. It was. The date on the photo lined up with the rescue date. Remarkable. Available here. Lots of used copies at Abebooks.
Whew! Did you really make it to the end, dear reader? Thanks.
As important as these Canadian books are, they are drops in the bucket of thousands of books published in dozens of countries about the Spanish Civil War. So much for those who think that George Orwell’s book, Homage to Catalonia, was the book on the Spanish Civil War.
Let me know if you have any questions or other Canadian books to suggest on the Spanish Civil War.
***
Fighting for Democracy: The True Story of Jim Higgins (1907-1982), A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War can be ordered here.
