In late 1936, the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA) asked Hemingway to report on the Spanish Civil War, which had broken out between the Loyalist defenders of the current republican regime
and a conservative fascist coalition. The money was good; he had strong sympathy for the Loyalist cause; and being in the thick of war appealed to his appetite for adventure. It was, in short, an offer Hemingway could not refuse. Over the next two years, he would go to Spain three times as NANA's man at the front. In the process, he added a new ingredient to his public celebrity. Besides being an innovative man of letters, bullfighting aficionado, and expert outdoor sportsman, he was now the knowing war correspondent.
