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Fairspin Casino Portugal

Fairspin casino é um dos criptocasinos disponíveis para os apostadores em Portugal que desejam passar uma ótima experiência. Este bitcoin casino é relativamente recente, sendo que apenas está disponível desde 2018. No entanto, já é tempo suficiente para percebermos que Fairspin Portugal é uma opção a não perder.

Com grande diversidade de jogos, ainda que este seja conhecido pelas criptomoedas, aceita ainda moedas FIAT de modo a agradar todos os tipos de jogadores.

Se deseja saber mais, leia já a nossa avaliação Fairspin casino e descubra tudo o que este casino tem para lhe oferecer.

Principais Vantagens e Funcionalidades De Fairspin

Sempre que procuramos uma casa de apostas desejamos, claro, que este nos ofereça várias vantagens. Mas, será que Fair Spin tem vantagens suficientes para valer a pena criar conta? Reunimos as principais vantagens deste casino após a nossa revisão de Fairspin casino e também quais as funcionalidades que pode encontrar em fairspin.io:

Vantagens

• Programa de fidelização VIP
• Grande diversidade de jogos
• Levantamentos instantâneos
• Ótimo pacote de boas-vindas
• Plataforma segura
• Licença emitida em Curaçao

Além destas vantagens, os jogadores procuram saber quais as funcionalidades que podem encontrar. Para identificar as funcionalidades que o Fairspin casino online oferece é necessário avaliar todos os critérios que consideramos fundamentais. Não se preocupe, pois a nossa equipa de especialistas analisou tudo o que esta plataforma oferece. Além claro, de este ser um dos casinos onde pode usar criptomoedas, oferece outras funcionalidades bastante interessantes que iremos analisar ao detalhe ao longo desta avaliação.

No entanto, antes de analisar detalhadamente todas as funcionalidades iremos destacar o site e o design de FairSpin. Toda a plataforma é bastante moderna com um design limpo e funcional. Todos os separadores estão bem identificados e facilmente consegue encontrar os seus jogos preferidos. Pode também encontrar de forma simples as novidades, as promoções e também as opções de jogo em live.

Com a vantagem clara de que o site está disponível em português, num claro investimento ao público de território nacional. Vejamos então ainda o processo de registro, a diversidade de jogos e, muito importante, os bónus oferecidos no bitcoin casino.

Fatos Rápidos Sobre a Casa de Apostas Fairspin

Programas

Licença Oficial

Online Desde

Proprietário da Empresa

Tipos de Jogo

Aplicativo Móvel

Bancário

Total de Jogos

iSoftBet, Red Tiger, Evolution, Pragmatic Play, BetSoft, Thunderkick

Curacao

2021

Techcore Holding B.V.

Gold Digger, Hustling, Queenie, Thai Blossoms, Wanted Dead or a Wild, Odin’s Gamble

iOS, Android

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Mastercard, Visa, Piastrix, Perfect Money

3400+

Processo de Registro: Como Se Registrar Em Fairspin?

Antes de conseguir fazer Fairspin login é necessário criar uma conta. Felizmente criar conta em Fairspin online é muito fácil e em poucos minutos tem o seu perfil para começar a jogar nos seus jogos preferidos.

• Apenas tem de carregar no botão de ‘Registro’ localizado no canto superior direito e surge uma janela de registro.
• Quando a tela de registo surgir, introduza o seu endereço de e-mail, palavra passe, número de telefone e qual a moeda que deseja escolher para a sua conta.

Em baixo terá um passo-a-passo detalhado, mas antes, é importante referir que os dados fornecidos deverão estar corretos e a palavra passe deverá ser forte e única. Claro que os seus dados não devem ser partilhados a terceiros.

Como Criar Conta Em Fairspin?

Criar conta em Fairspin apostas é realmente muito simples. Para que não existam dúvidas, criamos um passo-a-passo, que verá em baixo. Em caso de não conseguir, por alguma razão, criar a sua conta, entre em contacto com o suporte ao cliente.

Siga o passo-a-passo e comece a explorar e a ganhar hoje mesmo:

Aceda à página de Fairspin

O primeiro passo para criar a sua conta é aceder à página de Fairspin crypto. Pode fazê-lo quer através do navegador, ou através do seu telemóvel, sem necessidade de descarregar uma aplicação.

Clique no Botão de registo

Localizado no canto superior direito do ecrã, encontra o botão de ‘Registo’. Clique e surgirá uma janela pop-up com um formulário que pede os dados para poder criar a sua conta.

Preencha o Formulário

Preencha o seu endereço de e-mail e palavra-passe. Ao aceitar os termos e condições, declara ser maior de idade e pode criar a sua conta. Garanta ainda que não é um chatbot ao clicar no botão ‘Não sou um robot’.

Prepare-se Para Ganhar

Faça o primeiro depósito e comece a ganhar nos seus jogos preferidos. Caso prefira pode simplesmente criar a sua conta através da rede social Facebook, ou através do Google e rapidamente pode começar a jogar.

Verificação De Conta

A sua conta de apostas pode necessitar de ser verificada. Para isso, clique no botão que encontra no canto superior direito do seu perfil e selecione a opção de verificação de identidade. Será enviado para outra página onde deverá descarregar a imagem de um comprovativo de identidade. Deverá também enviar uma ‘selfie’ e ao ser considerado um utilizador verificado, ganhará um bónus de aniversário.

É importante referir também que Fairspin oferece a opção de auto exclusão localizado no fundo da página. Esta opção é especialmente útil para a política de jogo responsável. Caso sinta que deverá optar pela auto exclusão poderá solicitá-la também através do chat ao vivo.

Processo De Login

Após a criação de conta, sempre que desejar aceder à sua conta basta fazer login. Como? Acedendo à página principal de Fairspin, encontrará no canto superior, mesmo ao lado do botão de registo, a opção de login.

Ao clicar na sua conta poderá ser necessário introduzir os seus dados de e-mail e palavra-passe, caso não os tenha guardado. Lembramos que nunca deverá guardar e/ou partilhar a sua palavra-passe em dispositivos partilhados.

Bónus De Boas-Vindas De Fairspin

Nada como um bom bónus de boas-vindas para cativar novos jogadores. Felizmente Fairspin sabe como oferecer um bónus que valha realmente a pena e disponibiliza um bónus nos primeiros quatro depósitos.

Além do bónus oferecido na primeira vez que joga em Fairspin, tem também a possibilidade de receber um bónus no aniversário Fairspin. Existem também promoções com alguma frequência em alguns jogos específicos. Recomendamos que verifique o separador de bónus com frequência, não deixando escapar nenhuma oportunidade.

Ao se registar no casino tem um bónus nos quatro primeiros depósitos. É um bónus com diferentes percentagens em cada depósito com um total de 140 rodadas grátis combinadas entre o total dos depósitos. Não há como negar – Fairspin casino sabe como conquistar os seus apostadores!

O bónus funciona desta forma:

• No primeiro depósito o bónus é de 100% até um máximo de $100 00 mais 30 rodadas grátis. Os 100% são oferecidos se depositar um mínimo de 500 USD. Com 20 USD já consegue um bónus de 50% e 10 rodadas grátis.
• Ao segundo e terceiro depósito recebe um bónus de 75% com 30 rodadas grátis até $75 000. Também aqui tem de efetuar um depósito de 500USD, mas com 20 USD é-lhe oferecido um bónus de 25% e 10 rodadas grátis.
• No quarto depósito recebe-se um bónus de 200% até $200 000 e 50 rodadas grátis. Aqui o máximo de bónus é de 500 USD, mas com 20 USD receberá um bónus de 100% e 10 rodadas grátis.
• O requisito de aposta é de 60x o valor do bónus.

Opções De Apostas Desportivas Em Fairspin

São várias as opções de apostas desportivas. Com apostas rápidas, ou combinadas. A possibilidade de apostas desportivas é algo recente, mas que acreditamos cumprir com todos os requisitos.

Mercados Desportivos

São mais de 2000 mercados onde se pode apostar em Fairspin. Desde os mais populares como o resultado final, a outros como o mercado de Handicap. São milhares de opções de aposta.

Tipos De Apostas

Fairspin oferece a possibilidade de apostas rápidas ou combinadas. As primeiras possuem, geralmente odds menores, mas mais fáceis de acertar. As apostas combinadas oferecem potenciais valores bastante apetecíveis, mas são, obviamente, mais difíceis de conseguir acertar em todos os resultados.

Opções De Apostas Ao Vivo

Graças ao fornecimento de conteúdos em direto nas 24 horas do dia, as apostas ao vivo são mais fáceis de fazer. Verifique as opções e tente a sua sorte.

Apostas Em eSports

Fairspin oferece um separador de jogos eSports onde pode apostar em jogos populares como League of Legends. Se é fã de esportes eletrónicos vai adorar este separador de Fairspin.

Odds De Apostas

A nossa análise verificou que as odds oferecidas por Fairspin são justas e estão dentro da média que é encontrada em outras plataformas de apostas desportivas. Com grande concorrência é difícil que as odds sejam muito dispares entre plataformas, mas Fairspin consegue boas cotações na maioria dos mercados oferecidos.

Review Geral Do Casino

De modo geral não há nada de grave a apontar a este casino. Com boa diversidade de jogos e um design moderno e minimalista, é difícil encontrar razões para não jogar em Fairspin. No entanto, de modo geral, a nossa equipa recomenda Fairspin como uma boa escolha para jogar os seus jogos preferidos.

Slot Machines

Sem dúvida que as slot machines são um dos jogos mais populares nos casinos online. Fairspin não é exceção e felizmente a diversidade é bastante boa. Com recursos exclusivos para uma experiência de jogo verdadeiramente emocionante, encontra slots dos fornecedores mais renomeados do mercado e títulos para todos os gostos num catalogo que conta com mais de 4000 slots.

Jogos De Mesa

Todos os casinos necessitam de jogos de mesa. Os jogos mais tradicionais e frequentemente procurados, oferecem na sua versão online a mesma experiência de jogo, sem necessidade de sair de sua casa. Desde os jogos mais tradicionais como Blackjack, ou Roleta, encontra em Fairspin versões modernas de jogos de mesa como Caribbean Stud, ou roleta rápida.

Poker

O Poker é uma das atrações fortes dos casinos online. Felizmente aqui pode contar com diversas mesas de poker para apostar com bitcoins. Desde as versões mais tradicionais como Texas Holdem, até às mais ‘fora-da-caixa’ como Oasis Poker, ou Poker Teen Patti, encontra, com certeza, o seu jogo de poker favorito.

Roleta

A roleta é um jogo que dispensa apresentações. Obrigatória em todos os casinos, físicos ou online, é um jogo que cativa pela sua simplicidade e emoção. Com a opção de jogar em diferentes variantes da Roleta como a roleta europeia ou americana, facilmente vai colocar este jogo na sua lista de preferidos.

Blackjack

Outro que dispensa apresentações. Blackjack ou 21 como também é conhecido está disponível na versão RPG e live em cerca de 100 mesas diferentes. Tente alcançar os 21 pontos primeiro que o dealer e divirta-se em um dos jogos de casino mais populares.

Jogos De Casino Live

As versões ao vivo oferecem uma experiência imersiva aos apostadores. Neste separador encontra jogos como Blackjack, Roleta, poker e muitos outros em versão ao vivo com transmissões de alta qualidade. Sinta-se como se estivesse realmente numa sala de casino sem sequer sair de casa.

Opções De Pagamento

Ainda que Fairspin seja um casino de criptomoedas ele oferece opções de pagamento com moedas FIAT para que todos os apostadores possam aceder à plataforma.

Opções De Depósito

Para depositar fundos em Fairspin pode fazê-lo através de cartão VISA ou Mastercard. Todos os pagamentos são processados em minutos. O limite mínimo de depósito é de 0.58 mBTC. Pode ainda usar carteiras eletrónicas como Skrill, Neteller, Jeton e muito mais.

Opções De Levantamento

Tal como os depósitos, também os levantamentos podem ser feitos através de VISA ou Mastercard. A maior diferença é que o processamento pode demorar alguns dias. Para levantar é necessário ter um mínimo que irá depender da moeda e do método de pagamento escolhido.

Licença e Segurança

Fairspin possui licença emitida pelas entidades de Curaçao. Além da licença toda a plataforma adota medidas modernas de criptografia para proteger os seus jogadores. A segurança é, aliás, uma das características dos casinos com tecnologia blockchain que usam criptomoedas como o Bitcoin e outras.

Usabilidade Das Apostas Online

É uma adição recente de Fairspin, as apostas desportivas. Mas, na verdade, este é um separador com grande qualidade, tal qual a encontrada nos jogos de casino. Com diversos mercados disponíveis e diversidade de apostas inclusive com opções de reembolso e mais de 70 000 eventos todos os meses, Fairspin é uma boa opção para os fãs de apostas.

Suporte Ao Cliente

Foi com agrado que percebemos que Fairspin oferece diferentes opções de contato. No caso de possuir alguma questão pode usar o chat ao vivo, que recomendamos especialmente para questões de resposta rápida. Pode ainda optar por uma chamada telefónica, via chat Telegram, ou até através de mensagem privada pelo Facebook.

Conclusão

Fairspin é uma plataforma recente, mas que não deixa dúvidas de que veio para ficar. Com grande qualidade, aposta na satisfação dos seus jogadores, seja com a oferta de um atrativo pacote de boas-vindas, quer com milhares de jogos de fornecedores de qualidade.

Muito para oferecer, consegue agradar aos fãs de criptomoedas, sem esquecer aqueles que preferem as moedas FIAT.

Perguntas Frequentes

1. Fairspin é seguro?

   Sim. A nossa equipa de especialistas analisou o casino Fairspin e concluímos que este é uma escolha segura. Leia a nossa avaliação para saber tudo o que Fairspin tem para lhe oferecer.

2. Fairspin oferece bónus de boas-vindas?

   Este é, na verdade, um dos pontos fortes de Fairspin. Um bónus de boas-vindas nos primeiros quatro depósitos. Veja como funciona no separador bónus que encontra na nossa página.

3. Apenas posso utilizar criptomoedas em Fairspin?

   Não. Fairspin aceita também moedas FIAT. Veja quais são os métodos de pagamento aceites em Fairspin no nosso separador de métodos de pagamento.

Jessi Duncanson

HONS 2011J

Maria Hernandez

18 October 2020

Eddie Balchowsky: Anti-Fascist of the Alleys

Eddie Balchowsky was an enigma of sorts, a man who lived by a strong moral code to avoid moral codes and whose most consistent feature was his embodiment of contradictions. He always professed a lack of interest in politics, yet was active in leftist causes from an early age and boldly defended and uplifted those who he saw marginalized or threatened by tyranny. He was an intensely creative person and identified as an artist rather than a dissident, but was most famed for ignoring the dictates of the US government and fighting Fascism in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Perhaps most enigmatic of all, and a large part of my reason for writing about him, is that even though the fight he joined in Spain failed in its mission to halt Fascism and cost him an arm, he maintained for the rest of his life that the sacrifice had been been well worth it. I believe his story can be both a model of life well lived and a cautionary tale, and that it has much to teach us and much to warn us about.

Edward “Eddie” Ross Balchowsky was born in 1916 outside of Chicago in the town of Frankfort, Illinois. His parents had left their native Poland prior to WWI and settled in Frankfort after being invited there to open a green grocery. They were the only Jewish family in Frankfort and after WWI broke out they had significant friction with the town’s largely German populace due to their open support of American forces fighting against Germany. The bullying that young Balchowsky received for being a Jewish kid in Frankfort would later be one of the main reasons he gave for volunteering to fight Fascism in Spain.

In contrast to Balchowsky’s reports of being bullied by his Frankfort peers, one of these peers claimed later in life that this bullying was unlikely because Eddie had had an uncanny ability to win people over and make friends with the force of his charm. Eddie’s cousin twice removed, Jeff Balch, told this second hand story from a member of the Frankfort Historical Society. “Ed would get together these poker games when he was just a young kid in Frankfort, but he would get the parents involved in the poker games. The parents would come to keep their kids from playing poker, and then he’d rope them in. He had that sort of personality” (Balch 44:27).

After high school Eddie went to University of Illinois and The Art Institute of Chicago and had plans, after completing his studies, of becoming a professional concert pianist. In his late teens, he had become friends with a politically leftist crowd who made him aware of the rising tide of Fascism and antisemitism in Germany and Spain. He became involved in leftist politics on campus but remained nonpartisan, which got him in trouble at times. When asked in an interview if he was a communist, Eddie said no, but added, “I had been exposed to all kinds of left-wing groups in college-socialists, communists, Trotskyites-and I was friendly with all of them because I wasn’t that much into politics. In fact, I marched in the May Day parade with the wrong banner-socialist or communist, I forget which-and got a tooth knocked out” (Heise). Though he frequently described himself as not being political and generally rejected political parties and ideological labels, Balchowsky hung out with a lot of leftist radicals and associated himself with a variety of leftist causes over the course of his life. His adoption of a neutral outsider status, combined with his charming and extroverted personality, gave him a certain independence that seemed to allow his easy movement between disparate social groups, which  would be a pattern in his life.

At age 21 Balchowsky put his plans for a concert pianist career on hold in order to join the then nascent fight against Fascism in Spain. After the Spanish general Francisco Franco led a fascist military coup against the left-wing Republican government of Spain the Republicans put out a call for volunteers from around the world to come to their aid. Angered by the antisemitism of the Franco and his allies, Balchowky heeded the Republican call for volunteers and joined the American contingent of the International Brigades, known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (ALB) or the “Lincolns” for short. He identified with the Spanish people, likening the antisemitic bullying he received in the town of Frankfort to the oppression they would face if the forces of Fascism were allowed to prevail. He described the decision decades later to a crowd of fellow Lincolns at a reunion in Spain, telling them, “Neither a hero nor a coward, I was a pianist who learned about oppression at a very early age, because for years I was the only Jewish child in my hometown and it was impractical to fight back. So, with the rise of Fascism in Spain I was grateful for the opportunity to fight what I had found no way to fight at home” (Forever Activists).

On November 19, 1937 Balchowsky arrived in Spain aboard a ship called the Massanet. Once there, he began work with the Republican Cultural Committee producing Republican radio broadcasts from Madrid. In the course of this work he became acquainted with, and came to admire, a number of volunteers from the British Isles who were lending their talents as writers, artists, and musicians to the Republican cause. In 1938 singer/actor/activist Paul Robeson traveled to Spain to perform for the Republican troops but did not have a pianist to accompany him. Chuck Hall, a friend of Balchowsky’s who met him in Spain during basic training, recounted, “Eddie jumped up and volunteered. He still had both his arms. He gave a concert I wouldn’t forget” (Kleine).

Balchowsky actually spent most of his time in Spain with the British battalions, rather than the Americans. Speaking with historian Studs Terkel, he described crossing paths with some of his British comrades from the Cultural Committee in the town of Tarazona de la Mancha and deciding that he wanted to fight with them, stating,

“I knew them. I knew what they did musically, I knew what they did poetically, and I knew what they did dramatically … when it comes time to fight, I wanna be with them!… But the order came, Americans over here, British over here. As soon as I heard that I got down on my knees and I slid around on the ground and I came up where the British were and I stayed there for a year, baby, and I was never sorry for it”. (Balchowsky, interviewed by Studs Terkel)

Working with the British Battalion, Balchowsky served as an reconnaissance scout and observer along the Ebro River. Speaking with Studs Terkel, he described the camaraderie between him and these volunteers from across the pond, including the curious but familiar way that he, as an affable outsider, was able to befriend and move between the groupings of English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, New Zealander, and Australian soldiers who were sometimes unable to get along with each other. When such ethnic disputes arose, the commanding officer would call on Balchowsky as a neutral outsider to mediate and sometimes translate between feuding parties who pretended not to understand each other’s regional accents (Balchowsky; “Eddie Balchowsky talks with Studs Terkel”).  

Balchowsky was taken out of action for a spell in the summer of 1937, after receiving a minor wound. Around September 1, he returned to the front and joined the Lincoln Battalion. One week on the front and a bullet from a fascist sniper caught him in the right arm. Balchowsky described the wound in the documentary Peat Bog Soldier; “I remember falling back and seeing a fountain of blood come up over my head. I was concerned because it was my right hand and I was a pianist, but the pain and trauma blotted everything out” (Peat Bog Soldier). The wound ended up requiring the amputation of his right hand and most of his forearm. He reported that his arm did not fully heal for seven years.

At the end of 1938 the Republic was losing the war and so, seeking to strike some kind of deal with the nationalists, sent the international brigades home. Balchowsky sailed with 40 other wounded men aboard the SS Harding and arrived back in the states on December 31, 1938, New Year’s Eve. His return to civilian life was difficult. His dream of a career as a concert pianist was shattered by the bullet that took his right hand. The Spanish republic he fought for had been defeated. Fascism had won in Spain and the US government labeled those Americans who had been brave enough to try and stop it “premature anti-fascists” and hounded them for flouting its officially neutral position on the fate of Spanish democracy. To cope with the pain in his arm and the trauma of the war, Balchowsky drank heavily for a period of eight years before a friend, worried that he would drink himself to death, turned him on to heroin as a more effective means of self-medicating.

Despite the monumental disappointment of the defeat in Spain, and the struggles he faced upon returning home from war, Balchowsky continued to play the piano and developed his own one-handed versions of international leftist anthems and classical works by the likes of Beethoven and Chopin. He had a particular affinity for Chopin and, when speaking on the subject of his one-handed technique, would say “I used to play Chopin but now I play with Chopin” (The Good Fight). This playful way of subverting misfortune by turning negatives into positives was characteristic of Balchowsky’s sense of humor and outlook on life. 

Balchowsky was friend and collaborator to many of the writers and artists who lived in Chicago or passed through, especially those who frequented or performed at the Quiet Knight, a folk music club where Balchowsky got a job as a janitor so that he would have access to their grand piano. Balchowsky did the cover artwork for the album, 953 West (Balchowsky, 953 West), by The Siegel Schwall Band (who, incidentally, my parents saw play at the Quiet Knight sometime in the late ‘70s, a few years before my birth) and several musicians wrote songs about or inspired by him, including Jimmy Buffet (“He Went to Paris”), Skip Haynes and John Jeremiah (”For Eddie”), and the great folk singer/storyteller of the working class Utah Phillips (”Eddie’s Song”). At a memorial for Balchowsky, long after his death, Phillips, who was Balchowsky’s junior by 19 years, described his admiration for him and told stories from their long friendship (Grider). According to Phillips, he met Balchowsky when he had just moved to Chicago and walked into the Quiet Knight to check it out, but found the place dark and empty except for Balchowsky, who sat at a grand piano playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”  with one hand (a moment Phillips would later immortalize in “Eddie’s Song”) followed by a raucous rendition of the leftist anthem, “Freiheit” (German for “Freedom”), a favorite of Balchowsky’s that was written by German anti-fascists, Gudrun Kabisch and Paul Dessau, in 1936 specifically for the international brigades fighting in Spain. 

In another story, Phillips told how he heard of Balchowsky’s passing and wrote “Eddie’s Song” to mark the occasion, only to pick up the phone one day, weeks later, and hear Balchowsky’s voice on the line. “Where ya calling from, Eddie?” quipped Phillips (Grider). Balchowsky had called to dispel the rumor of his demise and Phillips would go on to play him his (premature) post-mortem tribute, or “death song,” as Phillips called it. 

In addition to playing the piano, Balchowsky wrote poetry, drew, painted, and in 1988 published a memoir titled As You Pass Each Fence and Door after one of his own poems (one of the few available on the internet). Balchowsky’s style as a visual artist was eclectic, ranging from figurative portraits and landscapes to cubist and surreallist abstractions (Peat Bog Soldier). When he was low on funds, friends say that he would go from tavern to tavern on Chicago’s north side, selling his artwork to the bar patrons as a way to make ends meet (Anderson). He also had successful gallery shows, a one man show at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago, where two of his more surrealist works remain in the museum’s permanent collection, and his work was also chosen to adorn the walls and menus of Oprah Winfrey’s restaurant, The Eccentric (Anderson). 

Balchowsky called himself “King of the alleys” and made Chicago’s many back alleys his personal stomping grounds (Grossman). In another of his stories from the 2000 memorial/benefit, Utah Phillips described Balchowsky drawing and writing poems on pieces of newsprint as he walked Chicago’s alleyways and then flinging the finished pieces over his shoulder (Grider). Judging from images of Balchowsky’s home and studio and the stories of his friends, he produced a prolific amount of written and visual art work but he also seems to have had little concern for its preservation (Peat Bog Soldier). For Balchowsky, the physical evidence of his own life here on Earth seems to have been irrelevant, a distraction to be avoided so as to continue with the crucial task of living. This appears to have been an important part of his personal philosophy, to focus on living life in the moment rather than spend time ruminating on its meaning or its foibles. 

At times, Balchowsky’s free-spirited ways seemed to get the best of him, and led to many a run in with the Chicago Police Department, but his sense of humor could re-emerge in surprising ways. There were times when, after being arrested on some charge he would prank the officer in charge of fingerprinting by putting the stump of his right arm into his mouth right before they saw him. The startled officer would immediately panic, believing Balchowsky to have somehow swallowed his own hand (Balch). 

Balchowsky’s skirmishes with the law culminated in a period of incarceration for two years on a drug charge. While in prison he befriended an African American man on Death Row named Paul Crump, who had begun to take up writing. Balchowsky helped Crump edit his writing and led a successful campaign, through the prison newsletter, to convince the warden to give Crump a typewriter. After his release, Balchowsky was prohibited from visiting the prison, so he convinced a freelance writer, Felix Singer, who he was friends with to take an interest in Crump. Singer picked up where Balchowsky left off, advocating for Crump and his manuscript, and gaining the public support of figures like the author James Baldwin and folk singer Phil Ochs, who wrote a song about Paul Crump. Eventually their efforts paid off. Crump’s semi-autobiographical novel, “Burn, Killer, Burn,” was published and became a bestseller.  The novel was presented as evidence of Crump’s rehabilitation in hearings that led to the commutation of his death sentence and his eventual release from prison (“How a Killer Became a Writer”). 

According to Utah Phillips, Balchowsky also did other work advocating for those incarcerated in America’s prisons. In another story from the memorial, Phillips mentioned Balchowsky doing good work with disabled incarcerated people and collaborating with him on a series of benefit concerts for people in California’s prison system (Grider).

In 1986 Balchowsky and many other veterans of the ALB gathered for a reunion in Spain. It was the first time most of them had returned to the country since their sad farewell in 1938. Balchowsky gave a speech to an auditorium full of the assembled Lincolns and other comrades about his reasons for signing up to fight almost fifty years prior and the pride he felt in his service to Spanish democracy, stating that, “though I went home with one hand, I gained much more than I lost. Thanks to the Spanish people” (Forever Activists).

Balchowsky was a stubbornly free spirit and a champion of marginalized folk, who was determined to live as an artist and to live by his own principles. Due to his dogged independence, commitment to a bohemian artist’s lifestyle, and also his disability, trauma, and use of illicit drugs (whether for self-medication or recreation), this also meant that he spent much of his life in a precarious state, a step away from the streets. In his own fashion though, he seemed to adopt the struggles he faced in life as badges of honor. Rather than complain about his lot or give in to social expectations, he treated the bullying he received as a kid, the loss of his arm, and the fights with addiction and the law as mere pieces of a larger narrative, the personal myth of a man who lived according to his own terms. He often found creative ways to reframe the conditions he faced, perhaps using that same charm –which enabled him to convince angry parents to join in on their kids illicit, though probably harmless, gambling, and which allowed him to move among and befriend so many different types of people– on himself, to render as sensible the chance misfortunes of life and the principled sacrifices made in vain, and thus make the difficult path he had chosen more walkable. 

Balchowsky died in December of 1989 in Chicago after being hit by a train. He left behind three children, many friends, and a complicated legacy. Balchowsky was many things to many different people. I think the most apt assessments of Balchowsky’s life are also likely to be the most counterintuitive or contradictory. His friend Stu McCarrol called him “Our Falstaff and our Hamlet” (Anderson), a reference to figures both comical and tragic from the works of William Shakespeare. Studs Terkel referred to him both as “Chicago’s Huck Finn” (Grossman) and “Lazarus” (“Services Set for One-Armed Pianist Eddie Balchowsky”). Jeff Balch recounted the words that his father, Balchowsky’s first cousin, said about him: 

“My dad, he wasn’t dismissive of Ed, but I remember the way he put it was the following… ‘Your cousin Ed. He went to Spain and he was convinced that he was right and the rest of the world was wrong and was very disillusioned in Spain. Came back embittered. And maybe he…’ This is my dad reflecting many decades later, my dad said, ‘you know, maybe he was right about that’… Although my dad’s politics were conservative, I think he understood where Ed was at philosophically” (Balch 29:03). 

When I asked Jeff, who was initially drawn to Balchowsky’s story by his radical leftist bona fides, what legacy or lessons could be drawn from Balchowsky’s story, he answered, “You know, there’s a temptation to glorify and say he stuck to his ideals and we should take inspiration from it. And there’s some truth to that. But I think there’s also the tragedy, you know. He goes off to Spain and the Spanish war is lost, comes back and he has a lot of trouble… I see him as both an inspiring character and as a tragic character” (Balch 47:39). Utah Phillips stated that the two biggest things he learned from Balchowsky were 1. endurance and 2. the importance of understanding the Spanish Civil War, or as Eddie preferred to call it the “Second War for Spanish Independence”, to understanding the world today (Grider).

Balchowsky is buried a short ways away from the Haymarket Monument in Forest Home Cemetery. Though he was initially buried without a grave marker, Jeff Balch and the Chicago Friends of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade raised money to buy one. A large portion of that money was raised by the memorial/benefit featuring Utah Phillips in November of 2000, from which many of Phillips’ stories in this piece came (Grider). In a major stroke of luck for the benefit, Jon Anderson from the Chicago Tribune covered the event and published the resulting article one day before media coverage of the hotly contested 2000 Florida presidential election exploded and blocked out every other story in the news, which was just enough time for the article to spur a large influx of donations covering most of the costs of Balchowsky’s grave stone (Balch). A cenotaph, which is a marker for someone, often a casualty of war, whose body lies elsewhere, now sits in radical row, near the monument to the haymarket martyrs. It reads “In memory of Edward Ross Balchowsky 1916 – 1989 artist, poet, raconteur, one-armed pianist, veteran of the Spanish Civil War as a volunteer in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade your friends, family, and fellow “premature anti-fascists” salute you” (Cenotaph).

 

As you pass each fence and door 

by Eddie Balchowsky

 

As you pass each fence and door

I see you pass.

The wind loud alley 

And the dog you hear

I hear.

You eat and touch 

and I am pleasantly nourished.

And so together

We are free to act alone

Or to come once more as strangers 

To each other

 

 (Phillips, “Off the Cuff”)

Sources

 

Anderson, Jon. “An RIP for a Chicago Original.” Chicago Tribune. 7 November 2000, 

www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-11-07-0011070133-story.html. Accessed 2 

October 2020.

 

Balch, Jeff. Personal interview. 18 October 2020..

 

Balchowsky, Edward. Album cover art for 953 West, by The Siegel Schwall Band. August 1973. 

Discogs, www.discogs.com/The-Siegel-Schwall-Band-953-West/release/2607419. Accessed 12 October 2020.

 

Balchowsky, Edward. As You Pass Each Fence and Door. Limberlost Press, 1988. Publishing 

info found on Google Books,www.google.com/books/edition/

As_You_Pass_Each_Fence_and_Door/S3xHGwAACAAJ?hl=en. Accessed 17 November 2020.  

 

Balchowsky, Edward. Interviewed by Studs Terkel. “Eddie Balchowsky talks with Studs Terkel.” 

Studs Terkel Radio Archive, 1970. www.studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/

eddie-balchowsky-talks-studs-terkel. Accessed 15 December 2020.

 

Balchowsky, Edward. In the Light of the Moon. 1951. Art Institute of Chicago, 

www.artic.edu/artworks/78793/in-the-light-of-the-moon. Accessed 12 October 2020.

 

Balchowsky, Edward. Surrealist Landscape. N.d. Art Institute of Chicago, 

www.artic.edu/artworks/17575/surrealist-landscape. Accessed 12 October 2020.

 

Buffet, Jimmy. “He Went to Paris.” Youtube, Uploaded 13 August 2011, 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGmERAWVdWM. Accessed 12 October 2020.

 

Cenotaph for Edward Balchowsky. 2002. Forest Home Cemetery Overview, 

www.foresthomecemeteryoverview.weebly.com/eddie-balchowsky.html. 17 December 2020.

 

Forever Activists. Directed by Connie Field, Montell Associates, 1990. Vimeo. 

www.vimeo.com/ondemand/foreveractivists. Accessed 6 December 2020. 

 

The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Directed by Noel 

Bruckner et al. Abraham Lincoln Brigade Film Project, 1984.

 

Grider, Tim. “Eddie Remembered.” Vimeo, 5 November 2000, 

www.vimeo.com/478560805/ffba59e6cb. Accessed 1 December 2020

 

Grossman, Ron. “Maestro of the Streets.” Chicago Tribune. 15 December 1989, 

www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-12-15-8903180188-story.html. Accessed 2 

October 2020.

 

Haynes, Skip. ”For Eddie.” Youtube, 24 March 2015, 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWWM7olo99k. Accessed 12 October 2020

 

Heise, Kenan. “Painter, Poet Ed Balchowsky.” Chicago Tribune. 3 December 1989, 

www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-12-03-8903140901-story.html. 

Accessed 18 December 2020.

 

“How a Prisoner Became a Writer.” Ebony, November 1962, p. 92, 

www.books.google.com.au/books?id=Mz8uGcoeLZQC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=Paul+Crump%2BEbony&source=bl&ots=nV6XiQXMnm&sig=PwD_1zRpuBIeLnEJdQEyYnZv23E&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IGcBVayoO8_88QWAsYDACA&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Crump%2BEbony&f=false. Accessed 12 October 2020.

 

Kleine, Ted. “Requiem for a Fascist Hunter.” Chicago Reader, 23 May 2002, 

www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/requiem-for-a-fascist-hunter/Content?oid=908646. Accessed 2 October 2020.

 

Peat Bog Soldier. Directed by Diane Weyerman, quote by Edward Balchowsky, 29 March 2011. 

Youtube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBp96q6MmpA. Accessed 12 October 2020.

 

Phillips, Utah, host and performer. Balchowsky, Edward, author. “40. Off the Cuff,” 56:05, 

Loafer’s Glory: The Hobo Jungle of the Mind. KVMR, www.thelongmemory.com/#loafers-glory-episodes. Accessed 18 December 2020.

 

Phillips, Utah. “Eddie’s Song.” Youtube, 1979, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSRzuD_ctKo. 

Accessed 12 October 2020.

 

Anisa Najar
HONS 2011J
Final Essay
Professor Hernández-Ojeda

 

Volunteer Marion Merriman by Student Anisa Najar

 

Marion (née Stone) Merriman was born on August 18, 1909 in Reno, Nevada. She graduated high school at 16 and took up a secretarial job in order to save money for college. Marion’s mom, who had passed a few months ago, emphasized the importance of education to her 5 children. She hadn’t been highly educated herself, so she very much wanted her children to be.

When Marion was 18, she met her future husband, Robert Merriman, at a dance. Both were planning to enroll in the University of Nevada the next year, and they became much closer there. As both of their times passed at university, they became sweethearts, and eventually started dating officially. After essentially 4 years of dating, they got married right after they graduated in 1932; Marion got a degree in English, and Robert in economics. They moved to California as Robert went to the University of California, Berkley to continue his education in economics. Meanwhile, Marion got a job as a secretary at the Berkley office of the Federal Land Bank. All of the married women who worked there, however, were fired due to the Great Depression. Although they protested and tried to keep their jobs, they were still terminated. Marion’s two little sisters came to live with her and Robert in his first year at graduate school, which left little space in their apartment. They were being sent to convent, however, after their aunt was unable to care for them, so this was better than that. They also took in one of Roberts friends who was down on his luck, so their apartment was basically all beds. As Robert learned more about economics, both from books and from real life, he fought more for those who did not have and who were downtrodden. He also, like many others, became more interested in Russia, especially the economic system. In 1934 he applied for, and received, a $900 scholarship for a year of study abroad in Russia.

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Ana Lomidze

HONS 2011J

Hunter College-CUNY

Professor María Hernández-Ojeda  

Children and Young Adults in the Spanish Civil War

Personal Statement

In the first week of classes, we were assigned to read Sam Levinger’s last letter to his parents. It was a short letter, but the words he used had a huge impact. The part that stuck to me, as well as to the rest of my class was when he said, “Certainly I am not enthusiastic about dying. I’ve gotten a good bit of fun out of my first twenty years despite the fact that except for the last six months they were pretty useless. I suppose I would have enjoyed my next twenty just as much. I wanted to write this letter, however, to make clear that there is absolutely nothing to regret” (Love and Revolutionary Greetings: An Ohio Boy in the Spanish Civil War 158). Because of this one paragraph, my class’s hour and fifteen minutes were spent discussing, “what makes one’s life meaningful?” This question and my class’s discussion stayed with me. I kept thinking about what would be the answer to such a complex question.

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