Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Grafton Books, London 1976.
Jacket Design by G. Crabb.

Hemmingway travelled to Spain in 1937 as a war reporter to cover the Civil war. Three years later, he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. It is the story of an idealistic young American, Robert Jordan, who joins a small guerrilla unit fighting fascists high in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra. It’s a simple tale of an attempt by partisans to blow up a crucial, fascist-held bridge, which develops into a powerfully moving story of loyalty and courage, love and tragedy. Could it be semi-autobiographical as some have suggested? Certainly, it is one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century by one of the greatest American writers.