August 13, 1938- This postcard is written to Ring. It is very short and just says that he has come close to death in battle and is wounded. This other side of the poster portrays a hospital room. There is a strange wire bed-looking apparatus, a more familiar looking white hospital bed, and lots of iron rods. the room is empty and looks cold. It is labeled "Departamento de hidroterapia."

August 18, 1938- This postcard is written to his his mother. He briefly tells her that his wound is healing slowly, that hes getting better, and hes looking forward to returning to the battalion and seeing if he has any mail. The other side of the post card has a picture of "Un aspecto del Parque." It is a very pretty picture of a park in Spain. It is appropriate that he sent this gentle, reassuring image to his mother, rather than the bleak hospital picture that he sent to his brother.

August 2, 1938- In this letter written to his mother, James described his experience of being wounded and taken care of. He says that he is "going to write a piece on my recent adventures."

August 23, 1938- Another letter to his mother, telling her that he goes to the town to see American movies and go to the open market for food. He tells her that he expects to return to the International Brigades in a few days for a week of rehabilitation work. he says that "I believe there is a small piece of shrapnel in my leg, but the doctor says it doesn't matter," which suggests the limitations of the medical services in Spain. He says that he is unhappy because "this is really too luxurious a life and I want to get out of it before I grow spoiled."

September 2, 1938- This is a typed letter to his mother that he writes when he gets back to the International Brigades and spends a weekend in Barcelona. He describes visiting wounded friends, eating with friends, and many "luxuries of city life." He seems very happy and writes: "One things that makes me more satisfied with life than ever is that i have a very good idea of what i am going to do with my life."

September 14, 1938- This is a short letter to his mother which says that he is too overwhelmed to think and write coherently because he has been through some rough battles. He assures her that he is safe, however.

September 19, 1938- This letter is even more dreary. He decribes the heavy bombardment and constant need to dig trenches to protect oneself from shells and bombs. He says that "I never was so well paid for hand labor as by that feeling of comparative safety."

The fifth folder of this collection contains one letter written by Juan F. de Cárdenas to James Lardner's mother, in which he empathizes with her and says that he hopes to be able to give her good news very soon. This is obviously correspondence discussing James' disappearance.

The sixth folder contains one letter written by David Gordon to James' brother Ring on February 9, 1948, almost ten years after James' death. Gordon's letter explains that he is sending Ring James' activist card, which he had salvaged and kept all of those years. He says he hopes that Ring "will find it nice to possess a special memento of your brother James." He had made the card out to Jimmy posthumously. He says that he knows the card is safe with Ring because of Ring's own reputation as an activist in Hollywood.

The seventh folder contains a telegram from Hemingway to Jim's mother Ellis Lardner telling her how to find out "where Jims held." The telegram is written on a Western Union telegram.

The eighth folder contains letters written by Ellis Lardner.

June, 1938- In this letter, Ellis is writing to someone other than James and she relates all of her travels. It is clear that she is vivacious and has a lot of spirit. It is clear why James adores his mother and why he addresses her as "Darling." She writes that "I am too restless to stay any where long." She also writes that it is very difficult for her to let her sons live their own lives, "especially when they differ from our own ideas." She relates that she saw Ernest Hemingway and that he said Jim is safe and in a machine gun batallion that rarely goes to the front line.

May 1938- In this letter to the same person, Lane, Ellis writes that Jimmy "is a strange combination of ruthless logic and romantic idealism...but I am proud of him for doing what he thinks right."

The ninth folder contains one letter written by John Murra to Mrs. Lardner, written on November 12 (no year). He describes his friendship with Jim and tries to console Ellis by assuring her that Jim died for a good cause which he and his comrades will continue to fight for for the rest of their own lives.

The tenth folder contains a letter from Elman Service to Mrs. Lardner which explains that he was a very good friend of Jim and that, if she wishes it, he will visit her as soon as he returns to the states. He writes, "I'll not try to tell you in this letter how i personally feel about Jim's loss, or how sorry I am for you. I am writing this only to introduce myself and to tell you I am coming to see you."

The eleventh folder contains a typed letter from Diana Sheenan to Ellis Lardner relating to her news of Jim and that he is very happy. She also assures her, from personal experience with her own son, that Jim will be happier and better for having volunteered in Spain. She says that when she visited Spain, all of her own uneasiness disappeared because "there was a feeling of confidence and faith that Spain gives you, the thing there is there that makes people like Jim make these great decisions...." There is also a telegram that relates news of Jim and says that she has nothing to worry, at least for several weeks, because "all action is taking place elsewhere."

The twelfth folder contains letters from Diana Sheenan's husband, Vincent Sheenan, primarily to Ellis Lardner. In a letter dated May 15th, he writes to Mrs. Lardner and writes: "his friend Walter Kerr here in Paris tells me he thinks the idea was in Jim's mind beofre he ever left here" (joining the International Brigades). This gives us a better perspective on Jim's story than Jim's censored letters to his mother did in the first few folders. Vincent is a friend of Jim's in Paris and in this letter sets up correspondence with Ellis so as to assist in communication between her and her son in Spain. Also in the folder is a letter from Vincent to John N. Wheeler, President of the North American Newspaper Alliance and a neighbor and friend of Mrs. Lardner. This letter is written after Jim's death and in it he writes about housekeeping things that needed to be done (dealing with Jim's belongings) and also that the Friends of the Lincoln Brigade wanted to make a memorial to Jim called the Jim Lardner Memorial, but need Mrs. Lardner's permission to do so. He writes postscript that he is writing a book that will include Jim and which Mrs. Lardner may read before he publishes it if she would like.

The thirteenth folder contains the activist card that Joe Gordon sends to Bill Ring. It says: "Ejemplo para todos sus camaradas de disciplina, de trabajo, en la defensa de la Causa del Pueblo contra la reacción y la invasión eztranjera." It lists the goals of activists after this.

The fourteenth folder contains newspaper clippings that have to do with James. In one clipping entitled "It Seems to Me," there is a picture of James, and he looks much older than I imagined him to be. The article writes "I imagine he was the only man of genius i ever met." The article also says that his brother Ring was not political at all at the time. This means that the activism in Hollywood that Joe Gordon relates in his correspondence to Ring was inspired by his brother Jim's efforts, and probably his death, in Spain. There is also a clipping of a story written by Vincent Sheenan about Jim entitled "Jim Lardner's Farewell to Arms." The article is a part of the chapter "The Last Volunteer" in his book "Not Peace, but a sword." In this he relates Jim's story from his time in Paris to his death in Spain. He writes, " What makes (Jim) not exceptional, but characteristic of much wider phenomena, was the wayin which the objective and subjective were mixed, so that his personal reasons could not be separated from the social purpose to which they thus powerfully contributed."

Thus ends the manuscript collection on James Lardner. Although short, due to his short time in Spain, it is dense with information and beauty- yet another truly remarkable and inspirational story of an American volunteer in Spain.