Neugass, James, 1905-1949

James Neugass (1905-1949) grew up in a wealthy New Orleans, Louisiana, family of bankers and industrialists. He attended Phillips Exeter, Yale, the University of Michigan, Harvard and Balliol College, Oxford but never attained a degree. Neugass arrived in Spain in November of 1937 and was an ambulance driver and Dr. Edward K. Barskys chauffeur during the Civil War. He was attached to Section 29 of the International Brigade in Villa Paz and saw action at Teruel, Segura de los Baños, Belchite and the Ebro. He was a member of the Communist Party and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

James Neugass grew up in a wealthy New Orleans, Louisiana, family of bankers and industrialists. He attended Phillips Exeter, Yale, the University of Michigan, Harvard and Balliol College, Oxford but never attained a degree. Neugass arrived in Spain in November of 1937 and was an ambulance driver and Dr. Edward K. Barsky's chauffeur during the Civil War. He was attached to Section 29 of the International Brigade in Villa Paz and saw action at Teruel, Segura de los Baños, Belchite and the Ebro. He was a member of the Communist Party and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. After returning home, Neugass took a series of factory jobs and published six novels and a series of translations. His novel, Rain of Ashes (Harper & Brothers, 1949) was accepted for publication shortly before his early death. His poem, "Give Us This Day," was published by Story and subsequently issued as a separate pamphlet with an illustration by Luis Quintanilla. His poetry also appears in Cary Nelson's The Wound and the Dream (University of Illinois Press, 2002). The images in this collection were accrued by Neugass in the course of his work in Spain. Neugass also wrote an autobiographical work, War is Beautiful: Journal of an American Ambulance Driver in Spain, 1937-1938; the unpublished manuscript is at the University of Illinois.

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