) was a British novelist, biographer (of Lenin and Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....

), social historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, translator and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

.

Fox studied modern languages at Oxford University, identified himself with socialist and communist political movements after a visit to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in 1920, where he saw the effects of the Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

 for himself. He was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Great Britain

Communist Party of Great Britain

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 and became a central figure in the cultural politics of the Party and across the Left in general. In 1936, in order to fight in the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, Fox joined the International Brigades

International Brigades

The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....

 through the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...

 in Paris. When he arrived in Spain at the end of the year, he was sent to be trained in Albacete

Albacete

Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the province of Albacete in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The municipality had a population of c. 169,700 in 2009....

 and was assigned to the XIV Brigade. After some weeks as a political commissar at the base he went to the front in one of the first operations in which the Brigades were involved, and he died at the battle of Lopera

Battle of Lopera

The Battle of Lopera took place between the 27th and 29th of December, 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. This battle took place during the Nationalist's Aceituna offensive.-Background:...

in the province of Jaén in December, 1936, though some biographies give January 1937, the date when his death was made public.

'Ralph Fox: A Writer in Arms' [Lawrence & Wishart], a memorial selection and appreciation, appeared in 1937. The bulletin of the Marx Memorial Library contains recent articles on Fox, and the Library holds many of Fox's papers and publications. To date there are only two extended accounts of Fox: Mike Freeman's 2009 study of Fox's life and cultural politics, 'Ralph Fox: Telling the Times' and a biographical essay by Don Hallett in the 2009 proceedings of the Halifax Antiquarian Society. Primary sources on Fox and the two above studies are available at Marx Memorial Library, the Working Class Movement Library at Salford, and Halifax Central Library.

Principal Works

'Genghis Khan. New York, Harcourt Brace and Company. 1936.
'Communism'. London: John Lane, 1935
'The Novel and the People'. London: Lawrence & Wishart,1937
'This Was Their Youth'. London: Secker & Warburg,1937
'Storming Heaven'. London: Constable, 1928
'People of the Steppes'. London: Constable, 1925
'Lenin'. London: Victor Gollancz, 1933
.The Colonial Policy of British Imperialism,London, Martin Lawrence ,1933