Howard Fast

Howard Fast 1914-2003, American author, b. New York City. A prolific writer, he is best known for historical novels that mainly concern rebellion against various forms of tyranny. They include Citizen Tom Payne (1943), Freedom Road (1944), My Glorious Brothers (1948), Spartacus (1951), and April Morning (1961). Among his later novels is a lengthy multivolume, multigenerational family saga set in San Francisco: The Immigrants (1977), Second Generation (1978), The Establishment (1979), The Legacy (1981), The Immigrant's Daughter (1985), and An Independent Woman (1997). His last works of fiction include the novels Redemption (1999) and Greenwich (2000). From 1943 to 1956, Fast was a member of the American Communist party. He served a prison term (1950) for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and his books were purged from American school libraries; in 1953 he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. The Naked God (1957) is an account of Fast's political experiences, and the memoir Being Red (1990) further explores the issues involved. He also wrote essays, science fiction, short stories, biographies, screenplays, poetry, and mysteries (many under the name E. V. Cunningham).

Bibliography: See A. Macdonald, Howard Fast: A Critical Companion (1996).

Fast, Howard M[elvin] (1914–2003), New York author of historical fiction. Some of his works are set during the American Revolution, including Two Valleys (1933); Conceived in Liberty (1939), about a private at Valley Forge; The Unvanquished (1942), depicting Washington's development as a leader; Citizen Tom Paine (1943), a fictional biography, dramatized in 1986; April Morning (1961), a boy's view of the beginnings of battles; The Crossing (1971), about Washington's crossing of the Delaware; and The Hessian (1972), telling of an innocent drummer boy tried for an atrocity, a victim of war's passions. Other fiction includes The Children (1937), about New York slums; The Last Frontier (1941), treating an Indian campaign of 1878–79; Freedom Road (1944), about a Southern black who becomes a congressman during Reconstruction; The American (1946), the story of Altgeld; Clarkton (1947), about a mill strike; My Glorious Brothers (1948), about Israel's ancient freedom; Spartacus (1952), treating the Roman slave revolt; Moses, Prince of Egypt (1958); The Winston Affair (1959), set in World War II; Power (1963), dealing with American labor during the days of a John L. Lewis‐like figure; Agrippa's Daughter (1964); Torquemada (1966); a four‐volume series set in San Francisco: The Immigrants (1977), Second Generation (1978), The Establishment (1979), and The Legacy (1981); Max (1982), about the making of a Hollywood movie mogul; The Outsider (1984), presenting the life of a rabbi in post‐World War II U.S.; The Immigrant's Daughter (1985), a fifth and presumably final novel in his series on San Francisco; The Dinner Party (1986), about a senator's personal and political life in present‐day Washington, D.C.; The Pledge (1988), treating a journalist trapped in the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy; and The Confession of Joe Cullen (1989), dealing with a man caught in the CIA during and after the Vietnam War. The Naked God (1957) is an account of his membership in the Communist party (1943–56), during which time he won a Stalin International Peace Prize (1953), wrote propagandistic works, and was ostracized in some quarters, including film studios, though novels of this period (e.g. Spartacus) were filmed after he left the Party. Fast's other writings include children's books, short stories, plays, biographies, and, under the pseudonym E.V. Cunningham, detective and police novels, but his greatest success has been as a historical novelist. Being Red (1990) is a graceful memoir dealing with his years as an American Communist Party associate.