For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway · 1940

Literary fictionHistorical fiction

Banned in 1 country

Addressing a 1937 Writers Congress in a rare public speech, Ernest Hemingway proclaimed that there is "only one form of government that cannot produce good writers, and that system is fascism. For fascism is a lie told by bullies. A writer who will not lie cannot live and work under fascism." With this rallying cry against the fascist forces in Spain's then year-old Civil War, Hemingway expressed his firm belief in an artist's need to write "what is true," his commitment to freedom, and his pas