Written out of his time reporting from Spain on the war for the North American Newspaper Alliance, it is not surprising that Hemingway’s veteran experience of war again in Europe, having already survived fighting in WWI, furthers his sense of disillusionment.

Hemingway was the first to release a major novel about World War II, and it was also considered the most moving novel yet published about the Spanish Civil War. Thus chillingly begins Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, which will turn 75 this year, upon the sentiment that every funeral bell tolls for us all, as well as for our dying world. ( From the publisher.“No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls It tolls for thee.” - John Donne, 1624 As the group attempts escape, Jordan is seriously injured, and Maria, having been told by Jordan that he will always be with her, leaves with the survivors while Jordan remains behind, waiting for death. Jordan blows the bridge, and Anselmo is killed by flying steel. Knowing that the fascists are aware of the offensive, Jordan sends a message to General Golz, hoping the offensive will be canceled, but the message arrives too late. Pablo, aware that Jordan's mission will invite fascist forces, refuses at first to participate, but relents, returning with additional men and horses shortly before the mission begins. Robert Jordan, a Spanish professor from Montana serving with Loyalist guerrilla forces during the Spanish Civil War, is guided by the old man Anselmo to Pablo's guerrilla band in the mountains above a bridge which Jordan must blow up when the Loyalist offensive begins. And there he finds Maria who has escaped from Franco’s rebels There he finds the intense comradeship of war. Robert Jordan, a young American, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. High in the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge.

Robert jordan for whom the bell tolls