Ralph Bates (3 November 1899 – 26 November 2000) was an English
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
,
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
,
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
and
political activist
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...
. He is best known for his writings on pre–
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
Spain.
Life
Bates was born in
Swindon, England
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
in 1899 and as a teenager worked at the
Great Western Railway factory. In 1917, he enlisted in the British Army and served in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, training soldiers to prepare for poison gas attacks.
After returning from the war, he began to travel, to France and then, in 1923, to Spain, where he had wanted to visit since boyhood (his great-grandfather, a steamer captain, was buried in
Cadiz). He stayed in the country permanently from then on, travelling and doing odd jobs. He published his first work, ''Sierra'', a collection of short stories, in 1933; in 1934, a novel, ''Lean Men''. 1936 saw the publication of Bates's best-known work, ''The Olive Field'', about olive workers in southern Spain. The book received good critical notices in the United States. For such writing, Bates has been hailed as a master of the
"proletarian novel", alongside
Tressell Tressell may refer to:
* Robert Tressell, a British writer
* Tressell Ward, a local government ward in Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes an ...
,
MacGill and
Grassic Gibbon, a genre offering "a new set of narrative concerns and characters".
Spanish Civil War
When the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, Bates was walking in the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
with his wife Winifred. Bates immediately enlisted with the government forces, initially working in propaganda and information services, and made rank of
political commissar. His wife worked with him as a journalist and broadcaster in the Ministry of Information, then joined the British Medical Unit in June 1937. In October 1936 he visited the British Tom Mann Centuria, arranging replacement of their commander and convincing them to join other English-speaking volunteers in the
Thälmann Battalion
The Thälmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned German communist leader Ernst Thälmann (born 16 April 1886, executed 18 August 1944) and included approximately 1,50 ...
of the
XII International Brigade
The XII International Brigade was mustered on 7 November 1936 at Albacete, Spain. It was formerly named the Garibaldi Brigade, after the most famous and inspiring leader in the Italian Independence Wars, General Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Structure
Its ...
, training in
Albacete
Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete.
Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...
. Later that year he travelled to the United States to raise awareness of the plight of the Spanish Republic. Bates was briefly arrested for arms smuggling when traveling through France back to Spain in February 1937. In May 1937 he addressed the
British Battalion
The British Battalion (1936–1938; officially the Saklatvala Battalion) was the 16th battalion of the XV International Brigade, one of the mixed brigades of the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War. It comprised British and ...
at
Jarama
Jarama () is a river in central Spain. It flows north to south, and passes east of Madrid where the El Atazar Dam is built on a tributary, the Lozoya River. It flows into the river Tagus in Aranjuez. The Manzanares is a tributary of the Jaram ...
about the May 'Disorders in Catalonia' following the Party line that it was all the fault of the
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...
, Trotskyists and spies. He moved to
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
and founded the
XV International Brigade
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade ( es, Brigada Abraham Lincoln), officially the XV International Brigade (''XV Brigada Internacional''), was a mixed brigade that fought for the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the Internation ...
's newspaper, ''The Volunteer for Liberty''. In June 1937 he escorted
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...
, British Communist leader, who was visiting Madrid. He frequently travelled to the United States and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
in 1937 and 1938, meeting his future wife, Eve Salzman on one trip.
Post-war
He joined the
British Communist Party
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
in 1923. After the
Soviet invasion of Finland
The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
in November, 1939, he publicly condemned the Communists in an article for ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
''. During the investigations of suspected Communists in the 1950s, he refused to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
After the end of the Spanish Civil War, Bates moved to
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, where he lived for a number of years, publishing ''The Fields of Paradise'' in 1940. In 1947, he became a professor of creative writing and English literature at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
, a post he would hold until his retirement in 1966. He published his last book, ''The Dolphin in the Wood'', in 1950, although he would continue to work on several unfinished writings up to his death 50 years later.
After his retirement, he moved with his wife to the Greek island of
Naxos
Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best ab ...
, where he pursued his lifelong hobby of mountain-climbing well into his 80s. He died in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in 2000, aged 101, and his cremated remains were scattered in Naxos.
Bibliography
Novels
*''The Lean Men'' (Peter Davies, 1934;
Macmillan, 1935;
Penguin wo volumes 1938)
*''The Olive Field'' (
Jonathan Cape,
E. P. Dutton
E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company. It was founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. Since 1986, it has been an imprint of Penguin Group.
Creator
Edward Payson Dutton (January 4, ...
, 1936; Hogarth Press, 1986)
*''Rainbow Fish'' (Jonathan Cape, E. P. Dutton, 1937)
** (includes four short novels: 'Rainbow Fish', 'Death of a Virgin', 'The Other Land' and 'Dead End of the Sky')
*''The Fields of Paradise'' (E. P. Dutton, 1940)
*''The Undiscoverables'' (
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 1942)
*''The Dolphin in the Wood'' (Random House, 1950)
Short Stories
*''Sierra'' (Peter Davies, 1933)
*''The Miraculous Horde and Other Stories'' (Jonathan Cape, 1939; expanded Random House edition as ''Sirocco and Other Stories'', 1939)
Biography
*''Franz Schubert'' (Peter Davies, 1934)
References
External links
Obituary ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
Obituary ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
*
Ralph Bates Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Ralph
English political writers
English essayists
English memoirists
English socialists
British Army personnel of World War I
British people of the Spanish Civil War
1899 births
2000 deaths
People from Swindon
English centenarians
International Brigades personnel
Male essayists
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
English male short story writers
English short story writers
Proletarian literature
Communist writers
20th-century essayists
Men centenarians