Landis, Arthur H., 1917-1986

Arthur H. Landis was born into a family of vaudeville performers in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1917, and spent most of his youth in Redondo Beach, California. Landis joined the 15th International Brigade in 1937 and fought with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion. He worked as a scout, a typographer, and an artillery spotter with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, and fought in the battles of Aragon and Teruel, where he was injured. Landis also worked for a stint for an intelligence unit, and participated in an aborted operation to blow up the Italian Fleet headquarters. Just before Barcelona fell to Franco, Landis helped load the 15th Brigade Archives onto a Soviet ship. He sailed back to the U.S. on the R.M.S. Ausonia in December 1938. For further biographical information on Landis, and to review the scope and contents of his manuscript collection see, Guide to the Arthur H. Landis Papers, ALBA 66. Landis' mother Alice Fries traveled to small towns across the Midwest and West working variety shows, including the Nut Chorus and Ralston Chorus, as a singer and dancer. Fries became Alice Landis when she married William N. Landis, Arthur's father. William, also a performer, entered the army in 1920. By 1922 the couple was estranged. Alice married her stage partner, Richard Yaryan, and changed her name to Alice Yaryan. The duo performed under the stage name fast-Stepping Man and Maid. In the late 1930s Alice sometimes used Alice Harper as a stage name (her father's name was Harper) when she performed in the duo Harper & King. Fries was a member of the American Guild of Variety Artists.

From the description of Arthur H. Landis photograph collection [graphic]. 1917-1986. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 79863749

Arthur H. Landis (1917-1986) joined the 15th International Brigade in 1937 and fought with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion. In 1967, Landis wrote The Abraham Lincoln Brigade about Americans in the Spanish Civil War, and later published Spain! The Unfinished Revolution, about the political complexities of the war. The Collection is comprised predominantly of approximately 100 hours of audiotaped recordings of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War. The original 1/4 in. tapes were created between 1963 and 1965 as research for The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Volunteers for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) associates around the country, alone and in small groups, recorded their memories of battles and day-to-day activities in which they had participated.

From the description of Arthur H. Landis audiotape collection, 1963-1965, 1984. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 476292852

Arthur H. Landis was born into a family of vaudeville performers in Birmingham, Alabama in 1917, and spent most of his youth in Redondo Beach, California. During the Depression, Landis moved across the Western states picking up work in canneries, mills, and on fruit farms. In April 1937, at 19, Landis went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He worked as a scout, a typographer, and an artillery spotter with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, and fought in the battles of Aragon and Teruel, where he was injured. Landis also worked for a stint for an intelligence unit, and participated in an aborted operation to blow up the Italian Fleet headquarters. Just before Barcelona fell to Franco, Landis helped load the 15th Brigade Archives onto a Soviet ship. He sailed back to the U.S. on the R.M.S. Ausonia in December 1938. Shortly after his return to the U.S., Landis married Ruth Jurow, and went to work for her father as a ladies clothing salesman in Rochester, Minnesota. Struggling financially, Landis and Jurow moved to Mexico City before settling in California in 1944. Landis and Jurow later divorced. It was in the mid-1950s that Landis began to actively pursue a career as a writer. In 1967 Landis published The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, an account of the experiences of Americans who fought in the Spanish Civil War. The book was based largely upon the reminiscences of SCW veterans, which Landis collected via correspondence and on audiotapes. The year his book came out, Landis was awarded a medal by the Presidium of the Soviet Committee of War-Veterans for his "great contribution in the history of the struggle of the Internationalists against fascism on the battlefields of Spain." In 1972, Landis published Spain! The Unfinished Revolution, about the political complexities on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. The book was published by Camelot, a company ran by Landis with a close friend and fellow SCW veteran, Manny Harriman.

Despite a bitter dispute with the leadership of the Volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) in the mid-1970s over the unauthorized translation into Russian of an essay written by Landis, Landis remained devoted to VALB throughout his life, contributing occasional articles to the association's newsletter, The Volunteer, and maintaining close associations with many VALB members. In addition to his political writing and radical activism (he participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement in the 1960s, among other activities), Landis established himself as a fantasy and science fiction writer. He published, edited and wrote for Coven 13, a gothic fantasy magazine, in the late sixties, and wrote a series of fantasy/science fiction novels (occasionally under the pen name James R. Keaveny, after an old family friend). Landis also published and wrote for Dealer's Voice, a motorcycle magazine. Through the 1970s, Landis worked occasionally as an automotive parts truck driver to supplement his writing income. Landis died of bone cancer in January 1986 in Los Angeles.

From the description of Papers, 1915-1944, 1965-1985. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 476249872

Arthur H. Landis was born into a family of vaudeville performers in Birmingham, Alabama in 1917, and spent most of his youth in Redondo Beach, California. Landis joined the 15th International Brigade in 1937 and fought with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion. He worked as a scout, a typographer, and an artillery spotter with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, and fought in the battles of Aragon and Teruel, where he was injured. Landis also worked for a stint for an intelligence unit, and participated in an aborted operation to blow up the Italian Fleet headquarters. Just before Barcelona fell to Franco, Landis helped load the 15th Brigade Archives onto a Soviet ship. He sailed back to the U.S. on the R.M.S. Ausonia in December 1938. For further biographical information on Landis, and to review the scope and contents of his manuscript collection see, Guide to the Arthur H. Landis Papers, ALBA 66 [Note: hotlink].

Landis’ mother Alice Fries traveled to small towns across the Midwest and West working variety shows-including the Nut Chorus and Ralston Chorus-as a singer and dancer. Fries became Alice Landis when she married William N. Landis, Arthur’s father. William, also a performer, entered the army in 1920. By 1922 the couple was estranged. Alice married her stage partner, Richard Yaryan, and changed her name to Alice Yaryan. The duo performed under the stage name fast-Stepping Man and Maid. In the late 1930s Alice sometimes used Alice Harper as a stage name (her father’s name was Harper) when she performed in the duo Harper & King. Fries was a member of the American Guild of Variety Artists.

From the guide to the Arthur H. Landis Photographs, 1917-1986, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)

Arthur H. Landis (1917-1986) was born into a family of vaudeville performers in Birmingham, Alabama in 1917, and spent most of his youth in Redondo Beach, California. During the Depression, Art Landis moved across the Western states picking up work in canneries and mills, and on fruit farms. In April 1937, at 19, he went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He served as a scout, typographer, artillery spotter, and commissar with the (Canadian) MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, and fought in the battles of Aragon and Teruel, where he was injured. Landis also worked for a stint for an intelligence unit, and participated in an abortive operation to blow up the Italian Fleet headquarters. Just before Barcelona fell to Franco's forces, Landis helped load the 15th International Brigade archives onto a Soviet ship. He sailed back to the U.S. on the R.M.S. Ausonia in December 1938.

Shortly after his return to the U.S., Landis married Ruth Jurow and went to work for her father as a ladies clothing salesman in Rochester, Minnesota. Struggling financially, Landis and Jurow moved to Mexico City before settling in California in 1944. Landis and Jurow later divorced. It was in the mid-1950s that Landis began to pursue a career as a writer. In 1967 he published The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, an account of the experiences of Americans who fought in the Spanish Civil War. The book was based largely upon the reminiscences of Lincoln Brigade veterans, which Landis collected via correspondence and on audiotapes (the latter comprise the bulk of the Arthur H. Landis Oral Hustory Collection [ALBA Audo 66]). The year his book came out, Landis was awarded a medal by the Presidium of the Soviet Committee of War-Veterans for his "great contribution in the history of the struggle of the Internationalists against fascism on the battlefields of Spain." In 1972, Landis published Spain! The Unfinished Revolution, about the political complexities on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. The book was published by Camelot Publishing, a company run by Landis with close friend and fellow SCW veteran, Manny Harriman. Despite a bitter dispute with the leadership of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) in the mid-1970s over the unauthorized translation into Russian of one of his essays, Landis remained devoted to VALB throughout his life, contributing occasional articles to the association's newsletter, The Volunteer, and maintaining close associations with many VALB members.

In addition to his political writing and radical activism (he participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement in the 1960s, among other activities), Landis established himself as a fantasy and science fiction writer. He published, edited and wrote for Coven 13, a fantasy magazine, in the late 1960s, and wrote a series of fantasy/science fiction novels (occasionally under the pen name "James R. Keaveny," after an old family friend). Landis also published and wrote for Dealer's Voice, a motorcycle magazine. Through the 1970s, Landis worked occasionally as an automotive parts firm's truck driver to supplement his writing income.

Landis died of bone cancer in January 1986 in Los Angeles.

From the guide to the Arthur H. Landis Papers, 1915-1944; 1965-1985, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)

Arthur H. Landis (1917-1986) went to Spain in 1937 to join the 15th International Brigade; he served with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, as an American volunteer in what became a predominantly Canadian unit. In 1967, Landis wrote The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a general history of American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, and later published Spain! The Unfinished Revolution, about the political complexities of the war.

The Arthur H. Landis Oral History Collection is comprised primarily of approximately 100 hours of audio-taped recordings of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War. The original 1/4" tapes were created between 1963 and 1965 as part of the research for Landis's The Abraham Lincoln Brigade . Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) associates around the country, alone and in small groups, recorded their memories of battles and day-to-day activities in which they had participated.

The idea of audio-taping veterans first occurred to Landis in April of 1963, and by August 1964 the project was gathering steam. On August 10th Landis sent a letter to VALB associate Donald Thayer in San Francisco detailing the information that he was seeking from SCW veterans. Thayer excerpted Landis's letter in a general mailing to VALB members, requesting that they make their own audiotapes, in which they were to supply detailed information about their battalions, units, firepower, orders received, positions occupied, nature of attacks, terrain conditions, day-to-day positions, casualties and prisoners, wins and losses, "human-interest vignettes," promotions or substitutions, and related information. Landis emphasized that he still badly needed information on Aragon, Teruel, the Retreats, and the Ebro. A decade after the research was completed, Landis recalled that the tapes contained the "detailed examination of American brigade and battalion involvement in a particular battle or series of battles in a particular campaign, and/or the structure, personnel and participation in action of a unit such as transport, artillery, the American Medical Bureau, etc." At least 20 of the tapings were not personally attended by Landis, but were produced according to his explicit instructions. Veterans Steve Nelson and Donald Thayer conducted a handful of the interviews. After Landis completed a draft of the book, veterans in VALB's New York office met and recorded their suggestions for changes (tapes ALBA A 66-2 and ALBA A 66-36).

Landis's research project stimulated intense interest among VALB members. Donald Thayer reported that when he played a tape made for Landis by a veteran for a group of VALB members, it stirred in the vets "all of the memories of the Brigade years."

Responding to a comment in 1977 by veteran Randall "Pete" Smith that Landis had downplayed the involvement of a fellow SCW veteran in his book, Landis recounted in a detailed letter the way in which veterans had been notified about the project, charging the New York VALB office with neglecting to invite the participation of a number of vets.

In the late sixties, Landis tried to interest the VALB leadership in funding a project to preserve the audiotapes, and later proposed a project that went beyond preservation. He explained his reasons for wanting to embark on this project in a 1974 letter to Brandeis University Special Collections Librarian Victor Berch, arguing that "new tapes [should] be made--and quickly, before the rest of us die off." Landis further proposed to "edit and re-tape" the tapes he had of vets who had already died. This project does not appear to have been carried out. But in the 1980s the reel-to-reel tapes were copied to audiocassettes.

For further biographical information on Arthur Landis, and for more information on the audiotape project see, Arthur H. Landis Papers, ALBA #66.

From the guide to the Arthur H. Landis Oral History Collection, 1963-1965, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)