Paul Arthur Burns was an Irish American born on March 14, 1906 in Sommerville, Massachusetts. He worked his way through college and graduated from Vermont´s Middlebury College with a Master of Arts Degree (MA) in Sociology. He was a writer, a teacher, and also a Writers Union activist. Also, member of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) and in 1937 he enlisted in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight against Franco’s rebel forces in Spain.

He sailed on January 9, 1937, aboard the “Lafayette” and arrived in Spain on January 14, 1937. Burns served with the Company 1 of the Lincoln Battalion of the 15th International Brigade as Commander. He was a Sergeant in command of the Irish section and later was promoted to Staff Sergeant, second in command of the infantry. He was active on the Jarama front and participated in two of the major campaigns of the war: the Battle of Madrid and the offensive at Brunete from July to August 1937. He was wounded twice, he was shot in the arms and legs in Jarama on February 23, 1937 and again, in Brunete, he was knee wounded by machine-gun fire. He left the International Brigades with a final rank of Lieutenant.

Burns was repatriated and he left Spain on September 13, 1937 aboard the “Normandie”. Returning to the United States, he was subsequently elected national commander of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He wrote for the Daily Worker, Sunday, and Story Magazine. After settling in Chicago, he became associate editor of the Daily Record, working in his spare time on a book of stories about the Irish battalion of the Lincoln Brigade. He was also a correspondent for the United Nations. Burns died in on December 9, 1996 in New York City at 90 years old.