Background

Fast was born on November 11, 1914, in New York City, New York, United States. His mother, Ida (née Miller), was a British Jewish immigrant, and his father, Barney Fast, was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant whose name was shortened from Fastovsky upon his arrival in America. When his mother died in 1923 and his father became unemployed, Howard's youngest brother, Julius, went to live with relatives, while he and his older brother Jerome worked by selling newspapers.

Education

Howard dropped out of high school and at the age of 18.

Career

Fast 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. Always interested in American history, Fast also wrote The Last Frontier about the Cheyenne Indians' attempt to return to their native land, which inspired the 1964 movie Cheyenne Autumn and Freedom Road, about the lives of former slaves during Reconstruction.

Fast spent World War II working with the United States Office of War Information, writing for Voice of America. In 1950, he was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities; in his testimony, he refused to disclose the names of contributors to a fund for a home for orphans of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War (one of the contributors was Eleanor Roosevelt), and he was given a three-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress.

It was while he was at Mill Point Federal Prison that Fast began writing his most famous work, Spartacus. Blacklisted by major publishing houses following his release from prison, Fast was forced to publish the novel himself. He subsequently established the Blue Heron Press, which allowed him to continue publishing under his own name throughout the period of his blacklisting.

In 1952, Fast ran for Congress on the American Labor Party ticket. During the 1950s he also worked for the Communist newspaper, the Daily Worker.

In the mid-1950s, Fast moved with his family to Teaneck, New Jersey. In 1974, Fast and his family moved to California, where he wrote television scripts, including such television programs as How the West Was Won. In 1977, he published The Immigrants, the first of a six-part series of novels.

Fast died in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

Achievements

• Howard Fast was one of famous American authors, who wrote prolifically, most notably popular historical novels on themes of human rights and social justice. During his lifetime he published more than 40 novels under his own name and 20 as E.V. Cunningham. Fast’s best-known books included Citizen Tom Paine (1943), Freedom Road (1944), Spartacus (1951), and The Immigrants (1977). Fast also wrote a biography of Josip Tito. His books were translated into 82 different languages and his last novel, Greenwich, was published in 2000.

Works

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  • The Winston Affair

    (During the Second World War, a military lawyer is embroil...)

    1959
  • Clarkton

    (When a factory strike turns violent, neighbors clash in a...)

    1947
  • The Story of Lola Gregg

    (As the sinister shadow of McCarthyism spreads across Amer...)

    1958
  • The Bridge Builder's Story

    (Comparativists evaluate democratization by looking at reg...)

    1995
  • The Last Frontier (North Castle Books)

    (The story of the Cheyenne Indians in the 1870s, and their...)

    1941
  • The Outsider

    (After witnessing the inhumanity and devastating suffering...)

    1984
  • Citizen Tom Paine

    (Thomas Paine’s voice rang in the ears of eighteenth-centu...)

    1943
  • The Children

    (Ishky is Jewish; Marie and Shoemake are Irish; Ollie is I...)

    1947
  • Conceived in Liberty 1939
  • Haym Salomon: Son of liberty 1941
  • Lord Baden-Powell of the Boy Scouts 1941
  • Goethals and the Panama canal 1942
  • The tall hunter 1942
  • Freedom Road 1944
  • The American: A Middle Western Legend 1946
  • Silas Timberman 1954

Politics

In 1943 Howard Fast joined the Communist Party USA. Later, Fast broke with the Party over issues of conditions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• As Alan Wald has pointed out: "In the 1940s, and again in the 1970s and 1980s, Fast achieved best-seller status with novels explicity promoting left-wing ideas."

Connections

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

Father:

Barney Fast

Mother:

Ida (Miller) Fast

Spouse:

Mercedes O'Connor

Brother:

brother, Julius

Brother:

Jerome Fast

ex-spouse:

Bette Cohen

References

• Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature
• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 181