Sex, Communism and the Spanish Civil War: The Diaries of Stanley Postek

In March of 1939 Stanley Postek, sat down in front of the window of his room at the Hotel Minerva in Paris and opened a blank notebook. On the first page of the book he wrote the title “My Memories of Spain.” The M and the S in the title are much larger than the other letters and are surrounded by dots to either emphasize the letters or present the illusion that they shine. The M looks almost like a valentine’s heart with a half smiling face hidden inside it, while the striped S, somewhat disturbingly, resembles a headless snake. Although the elaborate title appears juvenile Postek’s signature is very formal, written in large clear cursive letters of the sort used for signing legal documents. Postek turned to the next page and wrote a paragraph describing how many deep breaths he had to take before picking up his pen then added another paragraph about not being able to write. The young merchant seaman intended to record his recent experiences fighting as a member of the Abraham Lincoln battalion in the Spanish Civil War. But, despite the immediacy of events he doubted he could recapture the intensity of his experiences because of the loss of “the little diaries and sheets” he kept while serving with the International Brigades. The notes had been strongly written and timely, elements Postek feared he could not reproduce. Aware that his journal might not remain private Postek asked his future readers, when tempted to “giggle, sneer or criticize,” to remember that he was not writing for their benefit but for his own. Postek’s journal benefited him greatly, as writing it helped him deal with the trauma he endured in Spain, but, the reader benefits as well. Postek’s diaries do more than recount his experiences in Spain, they document the life of a seaman and communist organizer, provide insight into a sexual milieu profoundly at odds with mainstream, Hays Code America and tell the story of a life lived at the edge of society and yet at the center of world events. Postek kept numerous diaries over the course of his life; this study is primarily concerned with two: “My Memories of Spain” and a second journal that he called his logbook. The logbook fits inside “Memories.” Postek’s first entry in his Spanish memoir is dated 3 March 1939 he wrote in the book steadily until July when he stopped writing for three months. A single entry in October announced his intention to move to Boston and recounted a drunken party with two of his girlfriends in New York the night before his departure. The logbook starts on 23 November 1939 the same day that Postek signed on board the SS Oneida, a cargo ship running between Boston, New York, Charleston and Jacksonville. Postek declares that he is making a new start reinforcing