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Howard Melvin Fast (11 November 1914 – 12 March 2003) was a Jewish American novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
ist and television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 writer, who wrote also under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.

was born in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. His mother, Ida (née Miller), was a British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 Jewish immigrant and his father, Barney Fast, was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant whose name was shortened from Fastovsky upon arrival here.






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Howard Melvin Fast (11 November 1914 – 12 March 2003) was a Jewish American novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
ist and television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 writer, who wrote also under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.

Biography


Early life

Fast was born in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. His mother, Ida (née Miller), was a British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 Jewish immigrant and his father, Barney Fast, was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant whose name was shortened from Fastovsky upon arrival here. When his mother died in 1923 and his father became unemployed, Howard's youngest brother, Julius, went to live with relatives, while Howard and his older brother Jerome worked by selling newspapers. He credited his early voracious reading to his part-time job in the New York Public Library
New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is one of the leading Public library of the world and is one of the United States's most significant research libraries....
.

Young Howard began writing at an early age. While hitchhiking and riding railroads around the country to find odd jobs, he wrote his first novel, Two Valleys, published in 1933 when he was 18. His first popular work was Citizen Tom Paine, a fictional account of the life of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was a UK pamphleteer, revolutionary, Radicalism , inventor, and intellectual. He lived and worked in Britain until age 37, when he emigrated to the British American colonies, in time to participate in the American Revolution....
. Always interested in American history, he also wrote The Last Frontier, about an attempt by Cheyenne
Cheyenne

Cheyenne are a native Americans in the United States nation of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united Indian tribe, the S?'taa'e and the Ts?-ts?h?st?hese , which translates to "those like us"....
s to return to their native land; and Freedom Road, about the lives of former slave
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
s during Reconstruction.

Career

Fast spent World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 working with the United States Office of War Information
United States Office of War Information

File:M-4 tank crew, 1942.jpgFile:A-20 Bomber.jpgThe United States Office of War Information was a USA U.S. government agency created during World War II to consolidate government information services....
, writing for Voice of America
Voice of America

Voice of America is the official external Radio broadcasting and television broadcasting service of the Federal government of the United States....
. But he had joined the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA

The Communist Party of the United States of America is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States.The CPUSA is based in New York City, its newspaper, originally The Daily Worker, is today the People's Weekly World, and its monthly magazine is Political Affairs Magazine....
 in 1944, and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee

The House Committee on Un-American Activities was an investigative United States Congressional committee of the United States House of Representatives....
. He refused to disclose the names of contributors to a fund for a home for orphans of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'?tat by a group of Spanish Army generals, supported by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right , Carlist groups and the fascistic Falange, against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of pr...
 (one of the contributors was Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, President Franklin D....
), and he was imprisoned for three months in 1950 for contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress

Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States United States Congress or one of its United States Congressional committee....
.

It was while he was in jail that Fast began writing his most famous work, Spartacus, a novel about an uprising among Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 slaves. Blacklisted for his Communist activities and his criminal record, Fast was forced to publish the novel by his own Blue Heron Press. Unable to publish under his own name, he used various pseudonyms, including E.V. Cunningham, under which he published a series of popular detective novels starring a Nisei
Nisei

During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly Japanese American internment from their homes in the Pacific coast states because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage....
 detective with the Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills is a city in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, California, United States. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood, California are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, California....
 Police Department.

In 1952, Fast ran for Congress on the American Labor Party
American Labor Party

The American Labor Party was a political party in the United States established in 1936 which was active almost exclusively in the state of New York....
 ticket. During the 1950s he also worked for the Communist newspaper, the Daily Worker
Daily Worker

The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924....
. In 1953, he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. But, later in the decade, Fast broke with the Party over issues of conditions in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
.

In the mid-1950s, Fast moved with his family to Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck, New Jersey

Teaneck is a Township in Bergen County, New Jersey, New Jersey, and is a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 39,260....
.

Shortly afterward, Fast wrote April Morning, an account of the Battle of Lexington and Concord from the perspective of a fictional teenager. While not originally intended as a "young adult" novel, it has become a frequent assignment in American secondary schools and is probably thus his most popular work in the early 21st century. A film version was made for television in 1988.

In 1974, Fast and his family moved to California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, where he wrote television scripts, including such television program
Television program

A television program , television programme , or television show is something that people watch on television. It may be a one-off broadcast or, more usually, part of a periodically recurring television series....
s as How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won (TV series)

How the West Was Won is an United States Western television series starring James Arness, Fionnula Flanagan, and Bruce Boxleitner. A spin-off of the 1962 in film Cinerama How the West Was Won , it aired as a mini-series in 1977, and as a regular series in 1978 and 1979, preceded by a 2,5 hours long Television pilot, The Macahans...
. In 1977, he published The Immigrants, the first of a six-part series of novels.

Personal life

He married his first wife, Bette Cohen, on June 6, 1937. Their children are Jonathan and Rachel. Bette died in 1994. In 1999 he married Mercedes O'Connor, who already had three sons. He died in Old Greenwich
Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the town had a total population of 61,101....
, Connecticut
Connecticut

Connecticut is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The state borders New York to the west and south , Massachusetts to the north, and Rhode Island to the east....
 on 12 March 2003.

Fast's son Jonathan Fast
Jonathan Fast

Jonathan Fast is an United States author and social work teacher.Fast was born in New York City. He attended Princeton University, and earned graduate degrees at Columbia University and Yeshiva University....
, himself a novelist, was married to novelist Erica Jong
Erica Jong

Erica Jong, n?e Mann, born on March 26, 1942, in New York City, is an United States author and teacher....
; their daughter is the novelist Molly Jong-Fast
Molly Jong-Fast

Molly Jong-Fast is a United States author. She wrote about her wild life as a girl in 1990's New York. She is the daughter of Erica Jong and Jonathan Fast....
.

Works

  • Jews - Story of People (1982) ISBN 0-440-34444-1
  • Peekskill USA: Inside the Infamous 1949 Riots
    Peekskill Riots

    The Peekskill Riots were anti-communist riots that took place at Van Cortlandtville, Westchester County, New York State in 1949. The catalyst for the rioting was an announced concert by black singer Paul Robeson, who was well known for his strong pro-trade union stance on civil rights and his out spoken beliefs in international socialism and...
     (1951, reprinted 2006) ISBN 0-486-45296-4


Autobiography

  • Being Red (1990)
  • The Naked God: The Writer and the Communist Party (1957)


Novels

  • Two Valleys (1933)
  • Strange Yesterday (1934)
  • Place in the City (1937)
  • Conceived in Liberty
    Conceived in Liberty

    Conceived in Liberty, authored by Murray Rothbard, is a 4-volume set covering the complete history of the United States from the History of the United States#Colonial America through the American Revolution....
    ; a novel of Valley Forge
    Valley Forge

    Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, was the site of the camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War....
     (1939)
  • The Last Frontier (novel) (1941)
  • The Unvanquished (1942)
  • Citizen Tom Paine (1943)
  • Freedom Road (1944)
  • The American: A Middle Western Legend (1946)
  • Clarkton (1947)
  • The Children (1947)
  • My Glorious Brothers
    My Glorious Brothers

    My Glorious Brothers is a work of historical fiction by the Jewish American novelist Howard Fast, depicting the 167 BC Maccabee against the Greeks-Seleucid....
     (1948)
  • The Proud and the Free (1950)
  • Spartacus (1951) ISBN 1-56324-599-X
  • The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, a New England legend (1953)
  • Silas Timberman (1954)
  • The Story of Lola Gregg (1956)
  • Moses, Prince of Egypt (1958)
  • The Winston Affair (1959)
  • The Golden River (1960)
  • Sylvia (1960)
  • April Morning (1961)
  • Power
    Power (novel)

    Power is a 1962 novel by Howard Fast detailing the rise of the fictional Benjamin Holt, leader of the International Miner's Union, in the 1920s and 30s....
     (1962)
  • Agrippa's Daughter (1964)
  • Torquemada (1966)
  • Sally
    Sally

    Sally might mean any of the following:...
     (1967)
  • The Crossing (film)
    The Crossing (film)

    The Crossing is a 2000 A&E Network film based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast starring Jeff Daniels as George Washington. Also appearing in the film are Roger Rees as Hugh Mercer, Sebastian Roche as John Glover and Steven McCarthy as Alexander Hamilton....
     (1971)
  • The Hessian (1972)
  • The Immigrants (1977)
  • Second Generation (1978)
  • The Establishment (1979)
  • The Legacy (1981)
  • Max
    Max (novel)

    Max is a novel by Howard Fast. It is about the life of Max Britsky, a poor Jewish kid who grows up to be an entrepreneur during the infancy of the motion picture business....
     (1982)
  • The Outsider (1984)
  • The Immigrant's Daughter (1985)
  • The Dinner Party (1987)
  • The Pledge (1988)
  • The Confession of Joe Cullen (1989)
  • The Trial of Abigail Goodman (1993)
  • Seven Days in June (1994)
  • The Bridge Builder's Story (1995)
  • An Independent Woman (1997)
  • Redemption
    Redemption (1999 novel)

    Redemption is the 1999 novel written by Jewish writer Howard Fast who wrote Spartacus in the 1950s. Redemption is both a Romance novel and legal drama depicting Ike Goldman, an old professor emeritus falling in love with a woman named Elizabeth who is later alleged for her ex-husband's murder....
     (1999)
  • Greenwich (2000) ISBN 0-15-100620-2
  • Bunker Hill (2001)


The Masao Masuto Mysteries (as E. V. Cunningham)

  • The Case of the Angry Actress (first titled Samantha 1967)
  • The Case of the One-Penny Orange (1977)
  • The Case of the Russian Diplomat (1978)
  • The Case of the Poisoned Eclairs (1979)
  • The Case of the Sliding Pool (1981)
  • The Case of the Kidnapped Angel (1982)
  • The Case of the Murdered Mackenzie (1984)


Short stories

  • Departure and Other Stories (1938 First printing; renewed 1977)
  • The First Men
    The First Men

    "The First Men" is a 1960 science fiction short story by Howard Fast. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in February of 1960....
     (1960)
  • The Large Ant (1960)
  • Time and the Riddle: 31 Zen Stories (1975)


Film Scripts

  • Mirage (film)
    Mirage (film)

    Mirage is a Thriller directed by Edward Dmytryk from a script by Peter Stone , starring Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, and Kevin McCarthy , and released by Universal Pictures....
     1965


External links