| List of Illustrations
Series Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
I Old Spain: Portrait of a Family
II The War, 1936–1939: Fighting Fascism from the Press Office
III Mission to New York: Propaganda and Diplomacy
IV Refugee Crisis: From the White House to the Blacklist
V Mexico, 1940–1950: Exile
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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“Throughout
her book, Fox carefully corrects or complements De la Mora’s
own account of her life, and gracefully withholds moral judgment,
painting a balanced picture of virtues and faults. She is not out,
she writes, to ‘discredit Constancia’, who remains
for her ‘an exceptional defender of the Republic’.
Still, she argues, De la Mora’s role needs to be reconsidered
in light of the new evidence. Fox also makes clear that much about
De la Mora is still unknown. One of the charming aspects of this
biography is that, for all its astonishing revelations, it does
not attempt to answer every single question, leaving the reader
with some tantalizing enigmas. In this way, too, Fox’s book
can be seen as a critical, yet respectfully measured homage to
its subject.” Bulletin
of Spanish Studies
“Until now, nobody had taken on the
double task of providing a critical analysis of Constancia de la
Mora’s life and the context in which her one great work was
created. This is the task that Soledad Fox has undertaken brilliantly…
She takes on two roles: biographer and literary scholar… Fox
offers us a heartfelt tribute to an exceptional woman, as well as
a portrait of the anticommunist fever in the United States between
the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The figure of Constancia
had faded from history. Soledad Fox’s book recovers it with
great empathy.” Revista de Libros
“Through her groundbreaking research,
Soledad Fox reveals many previously unknown facts and contradictions
about de la Mora’s life in New York and later in Mexico, most
importantly, that she did not actually write In Place of Splendor…
De la Mora was well connected with wealthy and powerful sympathizers
in New York. However, Fox describes her fall from grace in the United
States when, after the signing of the Hitler–Stalin Pact in
August 1939 and in the midst of the anti-Soviet sentiment that followed,
her key supporter, Eleanor Roosevelt, apparently began to suspect
her Communist ties…
This is a highly provocative
book. Just as it brings to light myriad mysteries surrounding de
la Mora’s peripatetic life, it raised many other intriguing
questions. For instance, why did de la Mora avoid giving credit
to her ghostwriter, and why didn’t McKenney insist that she
reveal the truth about authorship of In Place of Splendor?
What motivated de la Mora to go on a trip with a conservative American
woman whom, from Fox’s descriptions, de la Mora appears to
have loathed?… Fox suggests that de la Mora became intransigent
and capricious in her last years. No doubt, like many of her fellow
exiles, she suffered from the psychological trauma that those who
had lost their homeland and loved ones experienced, and her anguish
was complicated by her feeling of impotence. One can only imagine
how deeply confounded and miserable she must have been when she
realized that she could not help the Spaniards suffering in Spain
and France and when, after World War II, all hope that Franco would
be overthrown disappeared.” The Volunteer
“By addressing the political and
sociological meanings of Constancia de la Mora’s communism,
the author opens up further audiences among historians of twentieth-century
Spain while her exploration of how, why and with what consequences
de la Mora then concealed this allegiance embeds her story in the
domestic political history of twentieth-century America with its
central mobilising narrative of anticommunism.” Professor
Helen Graham, Dept. of History, Royal Holloway, University of London
“De la Mora is clearly one of the most
exciting female figures from the Spanish Civil War. Many issues
about De la Mora's life and work have remained a mystery. Dr Fox
sets out to unravel those mysteries and to elucidate, through her
meticulous and brilliant research, the intricate political intrigues
that affected De la Mora’s life. Of special interest is the
provenance of her excellent autobiography on the war, In Place
of Splendor, one of the most compelling memory texts about
the war. Fox’s surprising findings about the authorship of
the book and other mysteries about De la Mora’s political
activities should provoke much discussion.” Shirley Mangini,
Professor Emeritus, California State University
“This book tells the story of Constancia de la Mora,
who is most well known as the author of the book In Place of
Splendor, published under her name in 1939. De la Mora was
born into wealth and privilege as the granddaughter of one of twentieth-century
Spain’s most famous and powerful conservative politicians,
Antonio Maura. Eventually, she distanced herself from this upbringing
by first divorcing her husband, and then marrying Ignacio Hidalgo
de Cisneros, a dashing aviator who later was head of the Republican
Air Force. The couple became increasingly politically active, first
through their passionate support for the newly established Republic
(1931), and later by joining the Communist Party. During the Spanish
Civil War, De la Mora served in a variety of capacities before eventually
becoming the head of the Republic’s foreign press bureau.
Her role was to facilitate reporting on the war and also to censor
reports filed by foreign journalists. Near the end of the conflict,
Prime Minister Juan Negrín sent De la Mora to the United
States in an effort to reverse the policy of Non-Intervention and
to solicit aid on behalf of the increasingly desperate Republic.
While there, she collaborated in the writing of In Place of
Splendor and, following the conclusion of the war, shifted
her lobbying efforts to the needs of Spanish exiles. Eventually,
she relocated to Mexico where she continued to labour on behalf
of the exiles and also worked briefly in the Soviet embassy. In
1950, while travelling in Guatemala, De la Mora was killed in an
automobile accident.
With the publication of this book, Fox hopes to revive the
memory of a once famous woman and she certainly succeeds in providing
a richer and more developed portrait of De la Mora than was previously
available. …. The strongest aspect of this work is the original
research Fox has done surrounding the true authorship of In Place
of Splendor. She convincingly argues that De la Mora, a British-educated,
non-native speaker of English, could not have penned such a dramatic
text, especially one containing American-style colloquialisms. Instead,
it seems that the true author of the book was an American writer
named Ruth McKenney, a well known, left-leaning writer whose background
as a journalist allowed her to quickly and effectively transform
De la Mora’s life story into a compelling piece of pro-Republican
propaganda.” European History Quarterly
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