Jefferson Hendricks – författare

"Rolfe's voice is one that many of us feared was buried forever.. . . He stands in the forefront of an entire 'lost generation' of left-wingwriters who fused artistic craft with irrepressible political commitment."-- Alan Wald, author of The Responsibility of Intellectuals: Selected Essays on Marxist Traditions in Cultural Commitment"[Rolfe's] Spanish Civil War poems may be the best written by anAmerican writer, and his McCarthy era poems brilliantly counteract theoften apolitical, rather socially aseptic poetry of their time."-- Reginald Gibbons, editor of TriQuarterlyThe radical journalist and poet Edwin Rolfe wrote eloquently of the hardshipsof the Great Depression, the experience of war, and McCarthy era witch-hunts.More than fifty of his best poems--some beautifully lyrical and some devastatinglysatiric--are included in Trees Became Torches. Rolfe was widelyknown as the poet laureate of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, the Americanswho volunteered to help defend the elected Spanish government during the1936-39 civil war.

Few topics in 20th century history generate as much interest as the Spanish Civil War. These letter from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade take us back to a time when 2800 Americans took up arms and confronted Hitler's Condor Legion, Mussolini's Black Shirts, and Franco's fascist calvary on the battlefields of Spain. Here are their combat experiences, the love letters they wrote under fire, friendships formed among themselves and with their Spanish comrades, and reports of Madrid and Barcelona undergoing history's first saturation bombing of civilian targets. It was the eve of World War II, and these men and women saw first-hand the danger facing the world. Iadrid 1937 captures for the first time the thoughts, words and dreams of those who fought.More than a collection of separate letters, Madrid 1937 gathers letters from many hands to tell a group story. Richly illustrated with over 50 color and black and white plates, this chronicle enables the reader to travel with the volunteers through France and Spain; visit the beseiged city of Madrid and walk the streets of Barcelona under fascist bombardment; experience the chaos of battle and the excitement of celebrations behind the lines; stand beside nurses and doctors as they struggle to save the lives of the wounded; and encounter famous writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Langston Hughes. Madrid 1937 tells a story of epic proportion, the struggle of a volunteer army who chose to risk their lives in the struggle against Fascism.