In September, the ALBA office received a note from Judith Adler, a retired professor of sociology at Memorial University in Canada. “Recently,” she reported,

I picked up a book that had belonged to my father, Nathan Adler (1911-1994). It was Edwin Rolfe’s The Lincoln Battalion, gifted to him by Rolfe in 1941, and inscribed: “To Nathan—for many things we did and thought and talked of together. Ed. New York, June 1941.” As I leafed through the book, a couple of sheets of paper that had been placed between its pages fell to the floor. It turned out to be a letter to my father, handwritten in pencil by Luke Hinman from the Spanish front. The letter is dated April 26, 1938. This means it was written after the grueling battles, terrible losses and great retreat of the Spring of 1938 of which Luke Hinman was a survivor. The letter is, for me, a moving testimonial to the qualities of its writer—and of his friendship with my father. Having subsequently come across and read a file the FBI created on Hinman after his return—in which it was reported that though he received the agents courteously he insisted that he had a bad memory for names when asked to name former comrades who, like himself, had left the Communist Party—I felt even more admiration for the manly self-possession of a man whose descendants, I felt,  have every reason to be proud of him.

Subsequently, Judith sought to learn more of Hinman, a California labor organizer both before and after the war, chief scout of the Lincoln Battalion and, toward the end of the war, an assistant of Edwin Rolfe. She learned that Hinman himself had been sent out to try to find Fritz, missing in action, whose loss is indicated in the letter. Among the friends—with whom the author of the letter, having survived a hundred deaths, dreamed of once again finding himself—she identified Gertrude as Gertrude Adler, first wife of Nathan Adler; Fritz as Fritz Orton; and Peggy as Fritz’s wife.

As the letter that dropped from the pages of the book was without an envelope, she wondered at the courier system by which it had found its way despite the declared loss of address. At Dr. Adler’s request, the ALBA office tracked down Luke Hinman’s daughters, Priscilla, Agatha, and Priscilla, who were “thrilled” to hear of the letter’s existence and recognized their father’s spirit in its tone.

The letter, which will be sent to the ALBA Collection at NYU’s Tamiment Library as soon as it is re-opened for submissions in the Fall of 2026, reads as follows:

April 26, 1938

Dear Nathan:

Writing to you has been on my mind ever since I arrived in Spain, and now my experiences have piled up to the point where I can’t even start to relate them. Anyway, it’s very difficult to convey them in a letter as everything is tied up with the military, and therefore cannot be related without going out of bounds.

My first action was the now famous battle outside Belchite, which ended five days later at Caspe. I died at least hundred times in those days, and don’t know yet how I came thru alive.

Two weeks later we went into this last action, and were cut off in the rear and surrounded. We fought our way in the mountains at night thru hordes of fascists. I and Frank fell in the hands of the fascist, but broke away and ran over sleeping fascist troops to get into the mountains. Later we got separated and I worked my way back to our lines along the Ebro River before the bridge was blown up. Frank got through two days later. We are now in the lines, or I should say still in the lines.

After my first action I was made a sargent [sic] and cited. After this last action I was attached to the Wash[ington]-Lincoln Battalion staff. I am C.P. Sect’y of the battalion (why can’t I be just a soldier for a while) and many educational sect’y is a friend of yours. He asked me to send his regards to you. You knew Eddy when you were film editor for the “Masses.”

Peggy is still in Paris, convinced there is a chance Fritz was captured at Belchite.

There is so many interesting things to tell you that I keep dreaming of the day when I can again sit down and battle with people like Nathan + Gerte, Howard and Adele, Mike and Rose, Dody, Peggy and, there is still a very slim hope, Fritz.

I’ll try to write you later in more detail. As I lost your address I’m not so sure I can find a way to get this to you.

How about writing to me and tell Gerte not to forget me.

Salud,
Luke