For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a demolitions expert, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during the Segovia Offensive. No. 1 on The New York Times Fiction best seller list for 5 weeks, from the issue of October 28, 1940. Wiki link