Books: How It Was

MEN IN BATTLE—Alvah Bessie—Scrib-er ($2.50).

The finest book that came out of the Spanish War was Andre Malraux's Man's Hope (TIME, Nov. 7). Alvah Bessie's book is not only the second finest; it is an addendum. Malraux's fictional account of the war ended with the Loyalist victory at Brihuega in March 1937. Bessie's personal story of eight months in the Lincoln Battalion begins in February 1938, six weeks before the battalion was cut to pieces in the Fascist drive to the sea. The author, a gifted short story writer and ex-Guggenheim fellow, took part...