Alvah's Books

“You’re obsessed!” My friends and husband tell me, and I can’t deny that for the past three years Alvah Cecil Bessie has become a preoccupation.

I’m not writing a biography, although I do have a solid foundation to start one, and who knows maybe I will. But I am writing a novel. Something that I call Julius. In the beginning, the story’s narrator, Corinne,  mentioned Alvah in a soliloquy about the Spanish Civil War and the Volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, but as I kept on writing Alvah crept in Corinne’s dreams. Then a few more rewrites and Alvah had a stronger presence. He became Corinne’s obsession, and mine as well.

As part of the month long tribute, I have a few surprises. The first one for today, for Alvah’s birthday, is an essay, “Two Fingers and a Thumb” by Dan Bessie, Alvah’s eldest son. There’s more to come, stay tuned. . . .

Alvah Bessie on HUAC Hearings, Hollywood Ten

I’m getting  little better at completing my reading goals. I managed to complete:

• Spain Again, by Alvah Bessie
• A Spy by Nature, by Charles Cumming

Still working on:

• A World I Never Made, by James LePore

Since it is Alvah Bessie Month this week’s books include:

• The UnAmericans, by Alvah Bessie
• Men in Battle, by Alvah Bessie
• The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction, by Helen Graham

I’m still behind on reviews, but Lush Life and A Spy by Nature will be posted later this week.

Today is Memorial Day and many of us are honoring the soldiers who defended our country and ideals in the numerous wars we’ve fought and in our current ones in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In today’s post, I’d like to honor the writer-warriors of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. These men and women were volunteers from the United States who served in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Of the 2,800, writers such as Alvah Bessie, Edwin Rolfe, James Gardner–son of humorist Ring Lardner and brother of screenwriter and Hollywood Ten member Ring Lardner, Jr.–Milt Woolf, James Neugass, and many more, illegally crossed into Spain from France to fight Franco and save the democratically-elected Spanish government. According to estimates, 800 American volunteers died in Spain including James Lardner–the last American casualty.

Not many Americans know of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, its history, or about the Spanish Civil War-a war known as the practice run to World War II. Readers who want to learn more about the “Abies” as they were known in the 1930s, should read Peter Carroll’s The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade or read Alvah Bessie’s Men in Battle. For a quick introduction visit the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.

As to why these men and women volunteered in a war that America wanted no part, reporter James Gardner said it best in a letter to his mother:

Mother, darling,
This is a letter which I started to write on April 10. At that time I thought I was going to have to break the news to you gently, but you seem to have heard it before I had the chance. I have kept putting off writing you because each day it seemed as it on the next I would know what I was going to do and where I would be stationed. I still don’t know exactly what the situation is, but I am leaving in half an hour for Badalona, about seven miles up the coast, where I will learn the rudiments of artillery in company with a new mixed international unit. It looks as if French will be the medium of instruction. I shall let you know more as soon as I can.

This is a most exclusive army. It has taken me twelve days of going from person to person and office to get where I am. I have listened to advice of all varieties, a large part of it against my enlisting at all. The decision has been very much my own, and I took it after a great deal of consideration. My closest friend and principal adviser here has been Vincent (Jimmy) Sheean, who told me not to join, which shows you how stubborn I am, if you didn’t know. Ernest Hemingway’s advice was that it was a very fine thing if I wanted to fight against fascism, but that it was a personal matter that could only be decided by me.

I don’t know how closely you have followed the war, but I imagine you must have an exaggerated idea of the danger of our position. On the map it looks as if Catalonia were a small fragment of territory about to be pushed into the Mediterranean, but in reality it is a lot of country, and I don’t think it will ever be conquered. There are too many people here who are fighting for things they believe in, and too few on the other side.

My views on the whole question are too complicated for me to try to explain here. I hope you are on our side and will try to convince your friends that I am not just being foolish. Not that I mind being though foolish, but American opinion is a very important factor.

I have made up a list of reasons why I am enlisting in the International Brigade, which is fairly accurate, as I did it for my own information. I am copying it here so that you may see for yourself which are the real ones. Some of them are picayune and most of them would have been insufficient in themselves, but all have something to do with it.

Because I believe that fascism is wrong and must be exterminated, and that liberal democracy or more probably communism is right.

Because my joining the I.B. might have an effect on the amendment of the neutrality act in the United States. Because after the war is over I shall be a more effective anti-fascist.
Because in my ambitious quest for knowledge in all fields, I cannot afford in this age to overlook war.
Because I shall come into contact with a lot of communists, who are very good company and from whom I expect to learn things.
Because I am mentally lazy and should like to do some physical work for a change.
Because I need something remarkable in my background to make up for my unfortunate self-consciousness in social relations.
Because I am tired of working for the Herald Tribune in particular and newspapers in general.
Because I think it will be good for my soul.
Because there is a girl in Paris who will have to learn that my presence is not necessary to her existence.
Because I want to impress various people, Bill for one
Because I hope to find material for some writing, probably a play.
Because I want to improve my Spanish as well as my French.
Because I want to know what it is like to be afraid of something and I want to see how other people react to danger.
Because there may be a chance to do some reading and I won’t have to wear a necktie.
Because I should like once more to get in good physical condition.

The first four reasons and the ninth, especially the first, are the most important ones in my opinion, but you may decide for yourself. I have also considered a few reasons why I should not join the army, such as that I might get seriously wounded or killed and that I shall cause you many weeks of worry. I am sorry for your sake that they are not enough to dissuade me. If it is any comfort to you at all, I still hate violence and cruelty and suffering and if I survive this war do not expect to take any dangerous part in the next.

If you still consider me one of your sons, you can send me an occasional letter and possibly a package now and then. My address here, I think, will be in care of the Brigadas Internacionales, but for a while I think it will be simpler to communicate through the Sheeans. Anything edible would be appreciated, milk chocolate or raisins, or anything in cans that does not require preparation.

Love,
Jim

In memory of those who fought and died in Spain.

Salut!

I am still very behind of reading and reviews. To make matters worse, I went to our local library’s booksale and stocked up on some beach reads.

In any event, this week’s reading includes:

• A Spy by Nature, by Charles Cumming

Still reading:

• Spain Again, by Alvah Bessie
• A World I Never Made, James LePore

I completed:

• Lush Life, by Richard Price. Review will be up on Wednesday

I’m in the middle of several books, but this week I plan to tackle and finish the following three:

• A World I Never Made by James LePore
• Lush Life, by Richard Price
• Spain Again, Alvah Bessie

Although I spent hours updating the look of this site, let’s face it, I rather be on WordPress.

I made the leap and went ahead got a brand new host for the site–warning plug ahead–The tech support team at Blue Host is fabulous. They were so patient with all my stupid questions, if you need a host for your site, go Blue Host. Thumbs up from this luddite.

However, life at the beach–when it comes to technology–is not all that simple. Once I had the host, all I had to do was point Exiled at the Beach Book Reviews to their servers. Simple, right? Nope. This domain name was bought through one of Google’s resellers. To make the switch would have been easy, but I had several snafus.

To manage my domain, I had to go to the access login, type in the name and my password. it wouldn’t let me in because I couldn’t remember my password. So I clicked the “email password.” Nothing happened. For a long time. Repeat. Nothing. After several attempts to retrieve the password and failing, it turns out these emails were sent to an address that doesn’t exist (apparently it was a typo in a user name I rarely use. Who’s at fault, me or whoever set up the domain remains a mystery).

Once that was discovered, I tried to go through the Google maze of support. Here’s the rant, skip ahead if you don’t want to read it. What the Hell were those supposed geniuses at Google thinking?  There isn’t a single and simple, fucking “email us with your problem” form. Nothing. I spent a good three hours going from page to page for NADA. They have the worst customer service on the planet. Done. Moving on.

I’m the type of person who always has a Plan B in my back pocket. Since I knew there wouldn’t be an easy or quick way to resolve this issue, my plan was to go for a complete overhaul and just change everything including the domain’s name and start over. What happens to this site? It will still be here, but once the new site is up and ready I’ll post with a new link.  Now I just have to learn WordPress and all it’s fancy stuff.  As for the name of the new site, it’s no longer a tongue twister and, yes, there is story behind the name.

The Story

Alvah Bessie is my one of my favorite writers. He was also an Abraham Lincoln Brigades volunteer who went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War. When he returned from Spain, Alvah wrote, Men in Battle a memoir of his experiences in Spain.  After the book’s publications, Alvah worked for The New Masses as the magazine’s literary and drama critic. From there, he went to Hollywood and was employed by Warner Brothers as a screenwriter. During his stint there, he wrote the screenplay for Objective, Burma. In 1945, he was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Story category for that film.

As much as Alvah loved the movies, Hollywood wasn’t kind to him. He was  one of the original 19 unfriendly witnesses that were later wittled down to the famous “Hollywood Ten.” Convicted for Contempt of Congress for not answering the HUAC’s questions or naming names, Bessie spent ten long months in the Texarkana Federal Pentitentiary in Texas. After he was released, Alvah never worked again in Hollywood. He was blacklisted.

The name of the new site, though, really has to do with a story that happened before Spain, before The New  Masses, Hollywood or the Blacklist.  It harks back to 1928, before the crash, when Alvah tried his luck on Broadway and this is what he wrote:

“I had spent four years getting exactly nowhere on the new York stage; unless you consider a six-month case of gonorrhea somewhere. I had somehow acquired 1,000 books (mainly by theft, I’m sure) during my four years in high school, four in college, and another four on the stage, and I decided that there was only one thing for me to do; I would sell the books for one dollar apiece and go to Paris–to write. And that is what I did.”

In memory of a great writer, a fearless hero and radical, I dedicate the new site to Alvah Bessie and his 1,000 books, as “Alvah’s Books.” Stay tuned. . . .

April is National Poetry Month. Alas, I am no poet. And I’ll spare you any of the bawdy limericks that I used to recite in high school English just to annoy my teacher. 

In honor of poets past and present, I thought I would post a poem that my hero, novelist, screen writer, Spanish Civil War veteran, and Hollywood Ten member, Alvah Bessie, wrote when he was serving his 10 month sentence for Contempt of Congress at the Texarkana Federal Penitentiary: 

The highways that are open to my mind

are not confined to those on any chart;

they are not as various as any art

might compass, and the traveler will find

that some sun straight to where he wants to go, 

while others spiral, circle, wander wide; 

some imitate the motions of the tide

while others speed–or make the journey slow.

There is no road that I rather walk 

than that which leads from where I a confined

into those tilted uplands of the mind

that are not even known to those who talk

of freedom, and who always have been free.

Who knows not prison, knows not liberty.

–Alvah Bessie, Inquisition in Eden

Alvah’s son, Dan, and I are pen pals. I never asked him about this poem, but I like it. Feel free to leave your interpretations and comments

Readers who have stumbled on Exiled at the Beach will know that I was an editor of The Internet Review of Books until very recently. At IRB, we had a few guidelines I found a little restrictive. Sometimes we were pitched a book that might be a year old (this exceeded our no more than six months old limit) or a category or genre we normally wouldn’t review such as poetry or cookbooks.  

So this got me thinking, why not personally review the books we rejected and then some?  The then some led to more thinking. Why not review or, perhaps, introduce books that were published long ago to readers. And that’s how this site came to be.