Arthur H. Landis (1917-1986) went to Spain in 1937 to join the 15th International Brigade; he served with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, as an American volunteer in what became a predominantly Canadian unit. In 1967, Landis wrote The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a general history of American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, and later published Spain! The Unfinished Revolution, about the political complexities of the war.

The Arthur H. Landis Oral History Collection is comprised primarily of approximately 100 hours of audio-taped recordings of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War. The original 1/4" tapes were created between 1963 and 1965 as part of the research for Landis's The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) associates around the country, alone and in small groups, recorded their memories of battles and day-to-day activities in which they had participated.

The idea of audio-taping veterans first occurred to Landis in April of 1963, and by August 1964 the project was gathering steam. On August 10th Landis sent a letter to VALB associate Donald Thayer in San Francisco detailing the information that he was seeking from SCW veterans. Thayer excerpted Landis's letter in a general mailing to VALB members, requesting that they make their own audiotapes, in which they were to supply detailed information about their battalions, units, firepower, orders received, positions occupied, nature of attacks, terrain conditions, day-to-day positions, casualties and prisoners, wins and losses, "human-interest vignettes," promotions or substitutions, and related information. Landis emphasized that he still badly needed information on Aragon, Teruel, the Retreats, and the Ebro. A decade after the research was completed, Landis recalled that the tapes contained the "detailed examination of American brigade and battalion involvement in a particular battle or series of battles in a particular campaign, and/or the structure, personnel and participation in action of a unit such as transport, artillery, the American Medical Bureau, etc." At least 20 of the tapings were not personally attended by Landis, but were produced according to his explicit instructions. Veterans Steve Nelson and Donald Thayer conducted a handful of the interviews. After Landis completed a draft of the book, veterans in VALB's New York office met and recorded their suggestions for changes (tapes ALBA A 66-2 and ALBA A 66-36).

Landis's research project stimulated intense interest among VALB members. Donald Thayer reported that when he played a tape made for Landis by a veteran for a group of VALB members, it stirred in the vets "all of the memories of the Brigade years."

Responding to a comment in 1977 by veteran Randall "Pete" Smith that Landis had downplayed the involvement of a fellow SCW veteran in his book, Landis recounted in a detailed letter the way in which veterans had been notified about the project, charging the New York VALB office with neglecting to invite the participation of a number of vets.

In the late sixties, Landis tried to interest the VALB leadership in funding a project to preserve the audiotapes, and later proposed a project that went beyond preservation. He explained his reasons for wanting to embark on this project in a 1974 letter to Brandeis University Special Collections Librarian Victor Berch, arguing that "new tapes [should] be made--and quickly, before the rest of us die off." Landis further proposed to "edit and re-tape" the tapes he had of vets who had already died. This project does not appear to have been carried out. But in the 1980s the reel-to-reel tapes were copied to audiocassettes.

For further biographical information on Arthur Landis, and for more information on the audiotape project see, Arthur H. Landis Papers, ALBA #66.