Remembering The Greats

On this date 76 years ago, Buenaventura Durruti was felled by a bullet in Madrid. the shot was fired either by a Fascist sniper in a nearby university building, or by one of his bodyguards, as some believe. Lately I'm refreshing my knowledge of the Spanish Civil War, so this legendary Anarchist leader's name comes up a lot. He was long on bravery and short on military science. This fault wasted many lives, but in spite of his shortcomings, he inspired hundreds of thousands of people to resist the Fascist uprising when the Liberal government of the day dropped the ball very miserably (to put it mildly).

I once met Fermin Rocker, whose father had visits by Durruti when he was a teenager. He described him as very personable and well-mannered, but once he saw Durruti get angry with another Spaniard for talking too loosely about deadly serious matters. On that occasion, the leader (a tall, barrel-chested man) was downright terrifying.

Durruti is at center, in the photo at left. It was taken in 1927 when he and his two buddies were released in Paris by the police. They had been caught trying to assassinate King Alfonso XIII of Spain, but a massive wave of strikes demanded and eventually got their freedom. I've been to his grave on the side of Montjuic in Barcelona. Francisco Ascaso (at left in the photo) lies beside him.

The book is the new, posthumous book by the late Paul Avrich, the pre-eminent historian of Anarchism and a man I knew. His daughter presents her self as co-author. Paul left a very long but unedited manuscript before his illness overcame him.

It was said by one of Paul's colleagues (himself a distinguished historian of the subject) at the memorial service in 2006 that "Paul was Willy Mays, and the rest of us are bat boys." I have not read the book yet (it arrived today) but it's interesting that Karen waited till the bottom of the 9th inning of the last game of the World Series to announce that she's a baseball fan. Installing herself in the hall of Fame at Cooperstown, NY is even more curious. If her father had left two unfinished books, she'd be Babe Ruth himself!

I'm off to my sister's place on Long Island tomorrow, where I will celebrate Thanksgiving Day.