American Commander in Spain

Robert Hale Merriman and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

By Marion Merriman and Warren Lerude

University of Nevada Press, Reno, NV, 1986. First Edition. Book Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good, unclipped. Protected in a clear mylar Brodart jacket. Bound in full rust cloth with gold spine lettering. A very nice volume. Clean, crisp, bright, and sharp. Illustrated with 16 B/W photographs and numerous maps. Notes, Bibliography and Index. 255 pages.

Biography of Robert Hale Merriman, first combat commander of the Abraham Lincoln Batallion and a major figure in the Spanish Civil War, upon whom Ernest Hemingway is said to have based the character of Robert Jordon in "For Whom The Bell Tolls." The author, his wife, was the only American woman to serve with her husband in the Lincoln Battalion. Marion Merriman recounts how she and her husband Bob found their way to the anti-fascist fight in Europe in the late 1930s. Attracted to the Spanish loyalist cause, Merriman joined volunteers from 54 countries who organized themselves into the International Brigades. Robert Merriman was lost in action in 1938. This book is Nevada Studies in History and Political Science No. 24.