Research Catalog

Title

Spanish testament / by Arthur Koestler, with an introduction by the Duchess of Atholl.

Author

Koestler, Arthur, 1905-1983.

Publication

London : V. Gollancz Ltd., 1937.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

384 p.; 21 cm.

Summary

• Spanish Testament is a 1937 book by Arthur Koestler, describing his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. Part II of the book was subsequently published on its own, with minor modifications, under the title Dialogue with Death (see below). Koestler made three trips to Spain during the civil war; the third time he was captured, sentenced to death and imprisoned by the Nationalist forces of General Franco. Koestler was at that time working on behalf of the Comintern and as an agent of the Loyalist Government's official news agency, using for cover accreditation to the British daily News Chronicle. --
• This is a book which illustrates better than any that I know the difficulty of getting at the facts in days of dictatorships and of war. For propaganda and press censorships are inseparable from both, and the strictness of the censorship on the insurgent side in Spain was revealed a year ago when the correspondent of two well-known British Conservative newspapers telegraphed that he was leaving the insurgent headquarters on account of the intolerable limitations that were being imposed on his work. Other correspondents of the "Right" have since experienced similar difficulties. Mr. Koestler in his opening chapter makes clear the dangers to which French correspondents who had reported the massacre at Badajoz had been exposed and the recantations which they had been driven to make. His own hands happily were more free. As representative of a well-known newspaper of the "Left" -- only a fortunate chance had enabled him to enter General Franco's territory, for journalists of the "Right" alone were being admitted. An equally unfortunate chance led to an early encounter with a former German colleague of the Ullstein Press in which he had held important posts before the advent of the Nazi régime in Germany. The encounter could not be agreeable to the insurgent authorities, and Mr. Koestler was no doubt well advised to end his visit to Seville. --

Series Statement

Left Book Club edition

Uniform Title

Left Book Club edition

Subject

• 1936 - 1939
• Prisoners of war
• Spanischer Bürgerkrieg 1936-1939
• Spanischer Bürgerkrieg
• Spain > History > Civil War, 1936-1939 > Personal narratives
• Spain > History > Prisoners and prisons. > Civil War, 1936-1939
• Spain

Genre/Form

• History.
• Personal narratives.
• Dust jackets – Specimens – Great Britain – 1937.
• Récits personnels.

Contents

Introduction -- Part I -- Journey to Rebel Headquarters -- Historic Retrospect -- The Outbreak -- The Background -- The Church Militant -- Propaganda -- The Heroes of the Alcázar -- Madrid -- The Last Days of Malaga -- Part II -- Dialogue with Death.

LCCN

38006893

OCLC

• ocm00837936
• 837936
• SCSB-803665

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library