Scan barcode
A review by kevin_shepherd
Looking for Trouble: The Classic Memoir of a Trailblazing War Correspondent by Virginia Cowles
5.0
In 1936 American journalist Virginia Cowles, tired of her gossip and high fashion writing assignments, set her sights on becoming a war correspondent. By sheer persistence and tenacity she was able to finagle an assignment in Europe—specifically Madrid—to report on the Spanish Civil War. While there she covered both sides, the Republicans and the Nationalists, with equal fervor.
“I had no “line” to take on Spain as it had not yet become a political story for me. I was much more interested in the human side…”
Cowles was fearless. If she wasn’t interviewing the military and political leaders she was working her way to the front lines. She wanted to be where there were articles to be written and stories to be told. Her take on the war would later prove to be prophetic.
“…the internal affairs of Spain were being carefully manipulated by the Nazis, via tactics that now have become familiar the world over.”
“…the fact that Germany was sharpening her claws on Spanish soil had not yet caused alarm to many Englishmen and Frenchmen, who regarded it chiefly as a crusade against the Bolshevik menace.”
As the war in Spain ended and World War II became a reality, Cowles’ affinity for the front put her in Helsinki and Prague and Paris at intervals when no one in their right mind wanted to be in Helsinki and Prague and Paris. Her stories, recorded here in Looking for Trouble are the stuff of legend. Most everyone knows about the wartime moxie and courage of Hemingway and Orwell, but neither has a leg up on Virginia Cowles.
“I had no “line” to take on Spain as it had not yet become a political story for me. I was much more interested in the human side…”
Cowles was fearless. If she wasn’t interviewing the military and political leaders she was working her way to the front lines. She wanted to be where there were articles to be written and stories to be told. Her take on the war would later prove to be prophetic.
“…the internal affairs of Spain were being carefully manipulated by the Nazis, via tactics that now have become familiar the world over.”
“…the fact that Germany was sharpening her claws on Spanish soil had not yet caused alarm to many Englishmen and Frenchmen, who regarded it chiefly as a crusade against the Bolshevik menace.”
As the war in Spain ended and World War II became a reality, Cowles’ affinity for the front put her in Helsinki and Prague and Paris at intervals when no one in their right mind wanted to be in Helsinki and Prague and Paris. Her stories, recorded here in Looking for Trouble are the stuff of legend. Most everyone knows about the wartime moxie and courage of Hemingway and Orwell, but neither has a leg up on Virginia Cowles.