It is interesting to see the bonds that these men (volunteers fighting in Spain) formed with Marjorie Polon, a girl that they did not know outside of their war-time correspondence with her. They relied on her to give news of home and hold relaxed, casual conversations. In fact, in one letter, Harry Hackman requests that she just write letters about her plans for the future, her family, “just plain, everyday troubles and experiences.”
Many of the men asked her to send things: cigarettes, books, photographs. Harry writes a letter in which he lists 10 men, a brief description of each man, and requests that she send them all cigarettes. He requests that she not refer to them as heroes and that her part in helping the anti-fascist efforts is by maintaining correspondence, and that, “[she] can help by writing more interesting letters.” How lonely it must have been on the front, that they were willing to maintain such frequent correspondence with an unknown girl. However, this was their link to home, their chance to see what was going on in the country they had left. They relied so much on her letters that Harry tells her to get more involved and to involve her friends, encouraging her to find someone to write in Spanish so that more soldiers can receive letters from her. Bill Bailey wrote to Marjorie, requesting that she write to him as well.
I guess it is the same idea that we continue to advocate today. We are encouraged to write Christmas cards and send care packages to the soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. When fighting in a foreign land, it must be comforting to know that people at home recognize and appreciate your efforts.
Many of the men asked her to send things: cigarettes, books, photographs. Harry writes a letter in which he lists 10 men, a brief description of each man, and requests that she send them all cigarettes. He requests that she not refer to them as heroes and that her part in helping the anti-fascist efforts is by maintaining correspondence, and that, “[she] can help by writing more interesting letters.” How lonely it must have been on the front, that they were willing to maintain such frequent correspondence with an unknown girl. However, this was their link to home, their chance to see what was going on in the country they had left. They relied so much on her letters that Harry tells her to get more involved and to involve her friends, encouraging her to find someone to write in Spanish so that more soldiers can receive letters from her. Bill Bailey wrote to Marjorie, requesting that she write to him as well.
I guess it is the same idea that we continue to advocate today. We are encouraged to write Christmas cards and send care packages to the soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. When fighting in a foreign land, it must be comforting to know that people at home recognize and appreciate your efforts.
it's a very interesting collection, isn't it? Remind me to distribute a copy of an essay I wrote about this collection.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Zara. But isn't the Marjorie Polon collection still very much "of the times," in an abstract sense? I feel like there would be no comparable situation today, and any soldier writing to a 14 year old girl that wasn't his sister would be very inappropriate. That said, we are living in the era of email and Facebook, so it is definitely simpler to keep in touch. Even if the volunteers didn't know Marjorie's age, what I love about the collection is how revealing it is to how I typically stereotype that whole era. The collection still feels wholesome, the characters like actors from a 1940s film, asking for cigarettes and the like.
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