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Articles, essays, ephemera

About My Life Briefly Advertisement American Literature...
Americans Don't Want War Anniversary Art and Politics
Arts and Sciences Meeting Background to 'Freedom Road' Beauty... of Stonehenge
Betrayal by Kurt Enoch Big Finger Bobbitt case
Boss, The Broadaxe of Sinclair Lewis Bulwark of Peace
Capital Punishment Christianity and Anti-Semitism Citizen Howard Fast
Civilization Drowns in a Sea of Gossip Classic Capitalism columns
columns Commencement = Beginning Cosmopolitanism
Courage Is a Quiet Thing Criticizing the US and USSR Cultural Forces Rally
Culture and the Future Dark Moment Day of War
Dialogue Disclaimer, The Dreiser's Short Stories
Drive Your Own Locomotive Ethics and Criticism Everybody Works
Eye For Detail Fast Revisits Foley Sq Fast's Eyewitness Account
Fast's Peekskill Affidavit Ferry to Freedom Four Brothers and You
Free Speech for Fascists? Freud and Science Fundraising Letter
George Washington Glorious Fourth Greetings to Foster
Help U.S.? No... Hero's Diary Hill That Bled
History in Fiction How the Liberty Bell Came to America How to Teach Tolerance
Howard Fast is as Prolific as Ever I Saw It Happen I Write As I Please
Importance of Registration In Search of the Welsh Incident at a University
Inglorious Tale Intellectual, The Inventing America
Invitation to A Dinner... It Isn't Easy... It's All in the Record
It's Not the Jungle Anymore Jews and the Cry for Justice Judge -- A Portrait
Justice and Death Kissinger and the Constitution Labor in the American Revolution
letter to Angus Cameron letter to Paul R. Reynolds: Mill Point Lincoln Is America
Literary Scene in America Literary Scene in America Lovable Atom
Madmen, The Making of a Democrat Maltz's Cross and the Arrow
Man's Hope Marching Up Freedom Road Matter of Validity
Meadows Meaning of Galut in American Medina Suddenly Turns Sweet
Memorial Day Massacre Method for Tolerance Mind That Moved Nations
My Decision My Father Need to Believe, The
Negro Finds His History Negro-Jewish Relations New American Scholar
No Man Can Be Silent No One to Weep Not With Tears
NPR and PBS Occurrence at Republic Steel October Revolution
On Comparisons On Franz Weiskopf On Going To Prison
On Leaving the CP On Oliver Twist on Review of 'My Glorious Brothers
On spending time in prison One Man's Heritage Only Honorable Thing
Open Letter to American People Ordeal of Boris Pasternak Our Unsingable Anthem
Peekskill People Always People's Standards in Art
Peoples Artists Makes Record Petty Villainy Pfc. La Houd
Philadelphia Story Populist alternative Proud to Be Black
Quiet Man, A Railroad Men Realism and the Soviet Novel
Receiving the Stalin Peace Award Red-Baiters, Incorporated Reply to Critics
Reply to Lyons' Open Letter Reveille for Writers Save the Rosenbergs!
Scotland for Outsiders Sid Marcus... Peekskill Victim Soviet Union
statement on Patriotism That Men May Live They Remember Girdler
This is the record... Three Battles and a Man Tides of Tomorrow
Time of Thanksgiving To Naxin Hikmet To use expensive toys
Together with Our Soviet Allies Tomorrow Will Be Ours Town, The
Turning Point Under Forty Valley of the Shadow
Van Doren's Mutiny in January Vcherashnie... Veterans of Two Wars
Washington's Wit Waterfront Morning Way for a Nation
We Have Kept Faith We Will Never Retreat We Will Never Retreat
What I Believe What's New... Or Else Who Was Tom Paine?
Why I Write About Judge Medina Why Spain Never Died Why the Fifth Amendment?
Will Authors Guild? Winds of Fear Without Honor, Civilization
Working Class Materials World of Langley Collyer Writer and the Commissar
Years of Battle



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1942. The Town. photographs by Arthur Siegel. in: Woman's Day, p.8, Nov'42. [the effects of war on a typical small American community (Mt. Carmel IL)]. (2,024 words).*

Just an American town. Howard Fast, who wrote "The Town" (pages 8-9), is the author of "The Unvanquished." It is a study of the Revolutionary War and is perhaps one of the most moving portrayals of the American people we have ever seen. It was because of the warmth of understanding we felt that we asked Mr. Fast to write about an American town at war. Not an outstanding town, not a town bound, by its locality or its industry, to know the war; just a town which is one of the vertebrae in the backbone of our country. It gave us a feeling of new confidence to read what he found, the intangible in the war effort which is the measure of its success...


1943 (?). Review of Carl Van Doren's 'Mutiny in January'. in: NY Herald Tribune, Book Week, '43 (?). [front-page review, Fast's view of the war, basis for Proud and the Free].



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1943. A Quiet Man. painting of George Washington by Bobri. in: Woman's Day, February, 1943 p 16. (2,419 words).*

HE was a very lonely man, and he learned early in life that it would not be easy for him; as a boy, he was too big, as a young man, he had already taken to the habit of silence. He grew quickly and inconsiderately, and when he was sixteen he already stooped to hide his very considerable size. There was nothing he could do to hide his huge hands and feet.
He took to the habit of silence, because it seemed to him that nothing he said was particularly clever, and when he fell in love with a girl, his conviction that she did not love him kept him from pushing the matter any further. The girl he loved married his best friend, and he was not the sort of person who could easily switch his affections from one woman to another. So he went on, year after year, loving a woman who was the wife of a man he respected a great deal. The woman, who knew of his love, wondered all her life why he had kept it so deep inside of him...


1943. Review of Leo W. Schwarz (ed.) "Memoirs of My People". in: Saturday Review, Feb. 20, 1943.



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1943. Everybody Works. illustrations by Roy Pinney and Frederick Lewis. in: Woman's Day, p.16-, Nov'43. [What is the WAR Doing to Us?]. (3,622 words).*

THIS town sits in a valley, ringed with green hills, and the houses crowd the narrow streets. Inside, it's a mill town, like so many other New England mill towns - and ten yards past its streets the country is as green and undisturbed as it was centuries ago.
Northern, Massachusetts; population about twenty-three thousand. They tell you its air is cleaner than that of most mill towns because it sits in the hills, a good height above sea level. They tell you too that the population has not increased any with the war, as is the case with the big defense centers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. This mill town isn't unique in that; a thousand other towns in America were left alone by the war in a population sense, so that the changes which came, came from within them...


1943. Labor in the First American Revolution. in: Ammunition (UAW-CIO) 1:8(8) Nov'43.



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1943. The People Always. in: New Masses, p.21-23, Nov 16'43. [text of talk given at meeting of Anglo-American Soviet Coalition]. (1,353 words).*

This war can be won on the battlefield, yet lost here in America; but if we win here in America, this war cannot be lost on the battlefield. I know as well as anybody how hard it is to fight outside of a uniform. There's little reward and no glory--yet I know that the fight here at home is as important as, and in a sense more important than the campaigns in Italy and the southern Pacific.
The very nature of this war, a people's war, makes that a truism. This is not the first people's war America has fought. The American Revolution was a people's war, and the Civil War was too; and in both those wars, as I propose to show you, decisive actions were fought on the home front as well as on the battlefield. And in some cases, a battle was decided many miles from the sound of the guns...



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1944. Together With Our Soviet Allies. in: Soviet Russia Today, November 1944, p.7. (768 words).*

THERE is no formal way of tribute to the Soviet Union. As simply as it may be said, we live and eat and drink and go about our work because there is a Red Army.
There was a time – and not so long ago – when all things seemed to pause, when the unfolding pattern of history paused and only darkness lay ahead. All that had been before, all the bitter and tragic struggles of man out of the slime and toward the light, all of that was apparently for no end. All of that was finished. All that we called civilization, the beauty we had made, the structures of stone and steel, the factories that made life easier and better, the hooks, the paintings, the dreams too, the philosophies we had sought so gropingly and fashioned into paths out of ignorance, the goodness of God that we had found for ourselves, the homes we had made and the futures we had planned - all of that was as nothing and doomed. A malignant and embodied evil, an essence of evil so vile that it defied our comprehension, had arisen; and that evil, which calls itself fascism, was triumphant...


1944. Free Speech for Fascists? in: New Masses, p.18, Jan 11'44. (318 words).


1944. History in Fiction. in: New Masses, p.7-9, Jan 18'44. (877 words).


1944. Under Forty. in: Contemporary Jewish Record, 7(25-27) Feb'44.


1944. Tomorrow Will Be Ours. dialog, bibl. note, por. in: Senior Scholastic, 44(13-14) May 8'44.



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1944. A Method for Tolerance. in: Harper's Bazaar 2791(31) Jul'44. [teaching tolerance and racial self-respect]. (1,764 words).*

editions


1944. The Glorious Fourth. in: Spotlight 2:7(9) Jul'44.


1944. The Importance of Registration. in: The Independent, p.2, Sep 21'44. [urging patriotic action and feeling].


1944. Arts and Sciences' Sponsor Meeting: 20,000 Attend. in: The Independent, p.1, Sep 28'44. [glowingly describes massive turnout at FDR reelection rally at Madison Square Garden].


1944. It's All in the Record. in: The Independent, p.3, Oct 13'44.



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1944. The Time of Thanksgiving. in: Mademoiselle, Nov'44, p.103-. [comparison with the RD condensed version]. (1,639 words).

editions


1944. This is the record... This is the work! in: Reader's Scope, pp 25-26, November 1944. 18.5 cm, (685 words).*



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1944. Geisz, Henry. Veterans of Two Wars. as told to Howard Fast. in: We, the People's Picture Magazine, p 14-15, Vol. 1, No. 1, Nov. 1944. 32 pp, 34 cm, A Martin Tumin. New York.*

THE closer this war gets to a finish, the easier it is to see what is being cooked up by the various political groups in this country as a means of handling the post-war problems we are all fac-ing. I am not a news commentator or a profes-sor, but I can see the trends as well as any of them. I know what happened after the last war in this country, what happened between wars, and I don't want to see it happen again. I speak as a veteran of World War I, a past commander of a Legion post, and an electrician by trade, a man who has carried an A.F. of L. union card ever since I was seventeen years old. I know from my own experiences when the politicians are handing out pap and when they are on the level...


1945. The New American Scholar. in: The Christian Register 124:2(55) Feb'45. [the scholar should observe his social duties and direct his research accordingly].


1945. Culture and the Future. in: New Masses 54:6(11) Feb 6'45. [text of speech given on receiving New Masses cultural award]. (469 words).


1945. Lincoln Is America. in: New Masses 54:7(10) Feb 13'45. [Lincoln's Birthday: Lincoln is the favorite American hero, the model of the American people]. (862 words).*


1945. It Isn't Easy... in: This Week Magazine (NY Herald Tribune) Sec. VII, p.2, Feb 18'45. [urging patriotic action and feeling].


1945. Who Was Tom Paine? in: New Masses 54:9(23) Feb 27'45. [abridged version of introduction to The Selected Work of Tom Paine] [comparison of Introduction and abridged version]. (1,858 words).



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1945. Proud to Be Black. in: Negro Digest 3:5(5) Mar'45. (407 words).


1945. That Men May Live. in: This Week Magazine (NY Herald Tribune) Sec.VII, p.2, Apr 8'45.


1945. Not With Tears. in: PM (Sunday), p.8, Apr 15'45.


1945. Review of Albert Maltz 'The Cross and the Arrow'. in: The Democrat, Apr 21'45.


1945. The Making of a Democrat. in: New Masses 55:4(8) Apr 24'45. [FDR: a eulogy]. (991 words).


1945. Background to 'Freedom Road'. in: Ammunition (UAW-CIO) 3:5(8) May'45.


1945. Without Honor, Without Civilization: Fascism. in: PM (Sunday), p.2, May 13'45.


1945. The Negro Finds His History. in: New Masses 55:7(17) May 15'45. [the history of the Negro in America is rich and needs to be publicized]. (1,326 words).*


1945. Commencement Means Beginning. in: Coronet, p. 26, June '45. (459 words).


1945. Ferry to Freedom. in: "Three Battles and a Man", illus. by Arthur Szyk, Coronet, July '45. (442 words).*


1945. The Hill That Bled. in: "Three Battles and a Man", illus. by Arthur Szyk, Coronet, p.103-110, July '45. (432 words).*


1945. Three Battles and a Man. illustrations by Arthur Szyk. in: Coronet, July '45. (contains: The Hill that Bled, Ferry to Freedom, Valley of the Shadow, [George Washington]).


1945. Valley of the Shadow. in: "Three Battles and a Man", illus. by Arthur Szyk, Coronet, July '45. (446 words).*


1945. [George Washington]. (text under plate of Szyk's painting of Washington). in: "Three Battles and a Man", illus. by Arthur Szyk, Coronet, July '45. (86 words).*


1945. Why Spain Never Died. in: New Masses 55:13(9) Sep 25'45. [vignettes of anti-fascism]. (1,021 words).


1945. Courage Is a Quiet Thing. in: Coronet, p.20-23, December '45. (1,618 words).*


1945. Realism and the Soviet Novel. in: New Masses 57:11(16) Dec 11'45. [the Soviet writer views the world through the realistic logic of dialectic materialism]. (2,910 words).


1946. Reveille for Writers. in: New Masses 59:4(3) Apr 23'46. [what is the responsibility of the writer today?]. (1,111 words).*



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1946. A Day of War. in: American Scholar 15 no 1(65-68) Jan'46 (Winter'45-'46). (505 words).*

DECEMBER 21, 1778 was a day of war, one day out of the several thousand days during which America fought for her independence. Nothing of great import happened: no major battles were fought, no great decisions rendered. For Mr. Draper and Mr. Folsom, who published The Independent Ledger and the American Advertiser, at the corner of Winter Street in Boston, it was another routine day, and as such, it lost itself in the maw of history...



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1946. Pfc. La Houd; Symbol of America. in: Coronet, p. 128-131, January '46. (1,794 words).*

During the war, he was nursemaid, parent,guide, and a slice of home to GIs in India...

   For a long time to come, Pfc. La Houd and civilization will be inextricably linked in my mind; from here on the two are one, and the misery of famine-stricken Indian villages, the memory of men and women dying and starving, will be softened somewhat by the picture of Pfc. La Houd, benign and knowledgeable, in bathrobe and slippers, pacing before the mail car. It came about this way:
   I was in Delhi, India, back in those distant days when the end of the war still seemed years away, and I was told that I would have to take the train to Calcutta. I could not fly. This was not as simple as it seems, nor is a forty hour ride on the East Indian Railway a matter-of-fact journey...


1946. What's New... Or Else! in: Mademoiselle, p.119, Jan'46.


1946. [invitation to A Dinner Honoring Negro and White Americans...]. (at the Hotel Commodore, Jan. 14, 1946). in: New Masses 58:2, Jan 8'46, rear cover. *


1946. It's Not the Jungle Anymore. in: New Masses 58:6 Feb 5'46. [on the United Packinghouse Workers (meat-packing industry) strike]. (1,499 words).


1946. Art and Politics. in: New Masses 58:9(6-8) Feb 26'46. [against Maltz's "What Shall We Ask of Writers" position that art and politics are separate]. (2,455 words).* [Seidman F39, (and see: Aaron 1961)]


1946. Four Brothers and You. in: New Masses 59:1(6-7) Apr 2'46. [racist killing by NYC policeman an example of the threat of American fascism].*


1946. I Saw It Happen. in: New Masses 59:2(6-7) Apr 9'46. [why Gromyko walked out on UNO Security Council hearings on Iran at Hunter College.]. (1,940 words).


1946. Toward People's Standards in Art. in: New Masses 59:6(16-18) May 7'46. [paper read at "Art is a Weapon" symposium, NYC 4/18: standards in art are class/economics based]. (3,034 words). [Seidman F40]



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1946. How the Liberty Bell Came to America. in: Coronet, p. 123-25, July 1946. (1,055 words).*

IT WAS NO ACCIDENT that old Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Assembly in Philadelphia, chose the quotation he did. The Assembly had appropriated money for the State House. Often, when this dignified and elective body adjourned, the members would stroll over to that half-finished building which later came to be called Independence Hall, and stand there watching the carpenters and the bricklayers. Old Isaac would say:
"There is a building coming out of the sweat and toil of free men."...



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1946. The Way for a Nation. in: Seventeen, p.55, Jul'46.

What is our Bill of Rights? A few afterthoughts tacked onto the Constitution? No, it is a charter of freedom demanded by the people, a blueprint to show all people how to protect liberty

In a letter to a friend of his, a veteran soldier of our Revolution said about the new Constitution:

"It tells me a nation of things about Government, but no place inside of it is there a good reason why I fought in a war and took me a wound in the arm. The Arm is no good for ploughing or otherwise, but I sit with a fine document that fine Men have drafted."


1946. Anniversary. in: New Masses 60:2(3) Jul 9'46. [the early days of the American Revolution glimpsed through a farmer's journal entries of 1775]. (1,313 words).*


1946. Working Class Materials Challenge Creative Artists. in: Daily Worker, Sep 2'46. [Labor Day: what is a writer to write about?]. (805 words).


1946. Dreiser's Short Stories. in: New Masses 60:10(11) Sep 3'46. [A slightly shorter, somewhat edited version of this article appears as Fast's introduction to The Best Short Stories of Theodore Dreiser]. (1,883 words).* [Seidman F41, (and see: Griffin 1987)]


1946. They're Marching Up Freedom Road. in: New Masses 61:6(20) Nov 5'46. [Southern Youth Legislature meets in Columbia, South Carolina]. (1,473 words).


1946. [Fundraising Letter UOPWA, Nov. 27, 1946]. [1] pp, 21.5 x 14 cm, (United Office and Professional Workers of America, 1939-1952). (216 words). New York.*


1947. American Literature and the Democratic Tradition. in: College English 8(279-284) Mar'47. [the strength of American Literature lies in its commitment to democratic ideals].


1947. No One to Weep. in: New Masses 62:10(12) Mar 4'47. [to the memory of Greek anti-fascist guerillas]. (865 words).


1947. No Man Can Be Silent. in: New Masses 62:13(12) Mar 25'47. [Americans must speak out for what they believe in]. (875 words).


1947. The World of Langley Collyer. in: New Masses 63:4(6) Apr 22'47. [what America's obsession with the death of the recluse shows about America]. (952 words).


1947. Memorial Day Massacre. in: New Masses 63:10(6) Jun 3'47. [part 1 of the story of the Republic Steel Memorial Day Massacre of 1937]. (2,454 words).

translations


1947. The Broadaxe of Sinclair Lewis. in: New Masses 63:11(23) Jun 10'47. [review of Sinclair Lewis' "Kingsblood Royal"]. (1,248 words).*


1947. They Remember Girdler. in: New Masses 63:11(18) Jun 10'47. [part 2 of the story of the Republic Steel Memorial Day Massacre of 1937]. (2,480 words).*

editions


1947. One Man's Heritage. in: New Masses 65:1(6-7) Sep 30'47. [the American heritage may include both Thomas Jefferson and Benedict Arnold...]. (1,136 words).*


1947. [letter to Angus Cameron of Little, Brown & Company]. November 20, 1947. [1] pp, 28 x 21.5 cm, typescript, (confirmation of change from Duell, Sloan & Pearce to Little, Brown). (406 words). New York.*


1948-1956. I Write As I Please. weekly newspaper column, August 1948 - June 13, 1956. The Daily Worker (& Seattle New World, Chicago Star, San Francisco People's World).


1948. Can Liberalism Survive the Present War Hysteria? in: Daily Worker, p.7, Apr. 16'48. [ad for upcoming speech, Apr. 18, 1948].


1948. Red-Baiters, Incorporated--An Exchange of Letters. in: Jewish Life 2:7(13-14) May'48.



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1948. Hero's Diary. in: Masses & Mainstream, p.75, Jun.'48. [review of "Notes From the Gallows" by Julius Fuchik]. (788 words).*

JULIUS FUCHIK was a Czech, a professional journalist and a poet. In the time before he died, slain by the Nazis for the sin of loving his native land, he wrote down what he saw and thought. So it was that, working at his precious and beloved craft to the very end, he left us an invaluable document and record of what those taken by the Gestapo saw and suffered...


1948. From the Maccabbees to the Haganah. in: Daily Worker, p.7, Jun. 11'48. [ad for upcoming speech, Jun. 13, 1948].



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1948. An Open Letter to the American People. in: Masses & Mainstream, inside covers, Jul.'48. [on the refusal of the Supreme Court to hear the appeal of the JARC]. (552 words).*

In a sense, it is presumptuous of me to attempt to speak to all the millions of good people who inhabit this land. For many months now, almost all of our newspapers have been closed to me; the magazines too, and the radio as well. To slander a man; then to permit him no answer, no defense; there is the simple rule of "free press" in today's America.
Yet I would be remiss indeed if I did not raise my voice concerning the refusal, yesterday, of the United States Supreme Court to hear the appeal of the board of the Joint Anti-fascist Refugee Committee. This is not a time for silence and forebearance...

editions


1948. Philadelphia Story. in: Uncensored 2(1) Aug'48.


1948. Fascism and the Novel. in: Daily Worker, p.7, Aug. 20'48. [ad for upcoming speech, Aug. 22, 1948].


1948. Howard Fast on Review of 'My Glorious Brothers'. in: Daily Worker, p.12, Oct.26'48. (841 words).



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1948. The Railroad Men. in: Masses & Mainstream 1:9(81-84) Nov'48. [review of 'Great Midland' by Alexander Saxton]. (1,254 words).*

WITH the publication of Great Midland, Alexander Saxton emerges as one of the foremost American writers of our time. His new book has a monumental quality, a literary grandeur, that in my opinion marks it as the finest and most important novel done by any American writer in the past several years. Here, for the first time in a certain area, is maturity – a maturity compounded out of action and understanding. On this question, I will go into more detail later...


1949 (Feb). The Judge -- A Portrait. (A Day at Foley Square with Howard Fast). in: Daily Worker, Feb 1'49. (831 words).


1949 (Feb). Will Authors Guild Let Gallico Speak for It? in: Daily Worker, Feb 25'49. (791 words).


1949. Medina Suddenly Turns Sweet Before Jury Panel. in: Daily Worker, Mar 11'49. (862 words).


1949. Cultural Forces Rally Against the Warmakers. in: Political Affairs 28(29-38) May'49. [a report on the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace, NYC, March, 1949]. [Seidman F46]


1949. Howard Fast Revisits Foley Sq. in: Daily Worker, May 30'49. (808 words).


1949. Why I Write So Much About Judge Medina. in: Daily Worker, Jun 27'49. (879 words).


1949. Howard Fast's Eyewitness Account of Fascist Mob's Attack. in: Daily Worker, Aug 30'49. (1,534 words).


1949. Howard Fast's Peekskill Affidavit. in: Daily Worker, Sep.13'49. (564 words).



Benjamin J. Davis
1949. Peekskill. in: Masses & Mainstream 2:10(3) Oct'49. (1,503 words).*

GERMANY AWAKE! That was in back of our minds, deep back, somewhere in the memories overlaid by almost twenty years, with one great war and many small wars in between, with Hitler mouldering in the earth, and Mussolini remembered as something strung up by the heels, like a stuck pig. But when we drove through Peekskill, at half past seven, on the morning of September 4th, we saw the banner slung from housetop to housetop; the dead filth was alive again. "Wake Up America!" it said. "Peekskill Did!" That way the day began which none of us will forget very quickly...


1949. We Will Never Retreat. in: New Masses, p.14 Nov'49.


1949. Wallace, Henry & Howard Fast. We Will Never Retreat. in: Jewish Life, 3rd Anniversary Issue, Nov'49. New York.


1950. Sid Marcus... Peekskill Victim. in: New York Fur Worker 5:1(8-9) Jan 30'50.


1950. The American People Don't Want War. in: New Times 10(7) Mar 8'50.



Eugene Dennis
1950. The Big Finger. in: Masses & Mainstream p.62-68, May'50. (2,570 words).*

THE mills of the gods, in the course of their ironic and thorough grinding, came finally to Mrs. Esther Caulkin Brunauer, who was second to none in her sublime hatred of Communists. Mrs. Brunauer, an official of the State Department, must have felt reasonably secure in the new grace attained by heartfelt and articulate Red-baiting. Thereby, in today's America, does one enter those orthodox Gardens of Eden which have been landscaped, furbished and marked off for all the faithful by the Truman-Acheson-J. Edgar Hoover combine for the destiny-of-mankind. And therein, Mrs. Brunauer, bulwarked by her prejudice against Communists and anyone who did anything with Communists, must have planned to spend her remaining years in healthy comfort, sunning herself in the beneficent glow of the brave men who rule America...


1950. Howard Fast: On Going To Prison. in: Daily Worker, Jun 5'50. (543 words).



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1950. We Have Kept Faith. in: Masses & Mainstream 3(23-28) Jul'50. (2,431 words).* [Seidman F48]

NOW that the Board of Directors of the Joint Anti-fascist Refugee Committee have finally been committed to prison, it becomes most pertinent to review the events of the past four years which have led to this mass jailing. Not only have these facts a peculiar historical meaning for the times in which we live, but it is urgently necessary to state and restate the truth. For the monopoly press of America is wholly devoted to obscuring the truth, a devotion matched only by its vicious and unprincipled propaganda for war. Nor are these two matters unconnected, as you will see. ...


1950. [On spending time in prison]. in: The Sunday Worker, p.4, Oct 29'50.

editions



George Bernard Shaw
1950. Reply to Critics. in: Masses & Mainstream p.53, Dec'50. (on criticism of the historical accuracy of The Proud and the Free). (4,762 words).*

When a reviewer presumes to charge me – as Mr. Sterling North did in the New York World Telegram and Sun – with treasonable distortion of fact, I think he and all of his fraternity deserve to be answered. The question of who falsifies history is an important one, for this is an era of many historical novels, few of them good, and very few indeed which have more than a nodding acquaintance with fact. A tolerant attitude is adopted toward most historical novels – an attitude so tolerant, indeed, that the charge of historical manipulation comes as something of a shock; and the singular quality of it makes one wonder whether those who charge falsification are not far more disturbed by certain elements of truth...


1951 [nd]. A Turning Point. in: The American Threat to British Culture, pp 55-56. 56 pp, 21.5 cm, Arena Publications. London.*

The American Threat to British CultureSam Aaronovitch
Our Historical TraditionDiana Sinnot
William Morris and the Moral Issues To-DayE.P. Thompson
The Trade UnionsWal Hannington
ScienceJ.L. Fyfe
AgricultureA Jordan
LiteratureMontagu Slater
PublishingJack Lindsay
The NewspapersRose Grant
Children's ReadingPeter Mauger
FilmsRalph Bond
I Take My StandW.E.B. Du Bois
A Turning PointHoward Fast


1951 (nd). Bulwark of Peace. in: We Pledge Peace: A Friendship Book. 100 pp, 21.3 x 28 cm, [one of 300 statements encouraging peaceful coexistence] (p.43). (112 words). The Friendship Book. San Francisco.*



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1951 (nd). [Pre-publication letter advertising "Spartacus"]. [1] pp, 25 cm, typescript (printed), [accompanying Angus Cameron's Reader's Report and letter to Fast].*


1951. [card accompanying first "Spartacus" editions]. [7.5 cm x 12.5 cm].*


1951. Peoples Artists Makes Record. in: Sing Out! Vol. 1, No. 10, March 1951. People's Artists Inc., 106 E. 14th St., NYC.



William Foster
1951. Greetings to Foster. in: Masses & Mainstream p.31, Mar'51. (470 words).*

WHAT do you say about Bill Foster? Years ago, I lunched with Jacob Potofsky – he was not yet head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America – and he asked me whether I wouldn't write a book about Sidney Hillman.
"If I wrote a book about a labor leader in America," I answered, "it wouldn't be Hillman."
"No," Potofsky agreed. "I suppose it would be Foster."
Not in deference to me or what I thought of Foster; but in simple acknowledgment of the fact that Foster was a giant, and that there was no other man in the labor movement who measured up to the great size of him. Even Potofsky recognized and paid tribute to the fact of William Z. Foster...


1951. On Oliver Twist. in: Masses & Mainstream p.20, Sep'51. (271 words).*


1951. Waterfront Morning. in: Masses & Mainstream p.43-45, Dec'51. (1,267 words).*

IT WAS just turning light, still with part of the sky gray-blue, as it often is so early in the morning, when I walked down Fourteenth St. toward the river. They had said they would meet me at six, at the corner of Eleventh Avenue, but I was a little early, and there was time for a cigarette on that cold, windy corner, watching the packinghouses load meat and counting the prowl cars. They came by almost one every thirty seconds. The two longshoremen drove a battered Buick. They drove alertly, their eyes watching and counting and estimating, as if they were in a battle zone. A moment after they had picked me up, they were rolling uptown under the express highway. They had been up all night, and there was a stubble of beard on their faces and circles under their eyes...


1951. [Betrayal story about Kurt Enoch, president of Signet Books]. in: Daily Worker, Dec 12'51.



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1952. The Man and the Books. in: Publisher on Trial: A Symposium. The Case of Alexander Trachtenberg. 48 pp, 18.5 cm, (a pamphlet of speeches given in support of Alexander Trachtenberg). Committee to Defend Alexander Trachtenberg. New York.


1952. [Advertisement for Spartacus with background information on publication]. in: National Guardian, p.4, Jan 9'52.


1952. Save the Rosenbergs! in: Masses & Mainstream, p. 48-50, Apr'52. (1,237 words).*


1953. Something About My Life Briefly. in: Zeitschrift fur Anglistic und Amerikanshik 1(13) '53.


1953. Years of Battle. in: Masses & Mainstream, pp 50-52, Mar '53. [on the 5th anniversary of Masses & Mainstream]. (952 words).*


1954. Why the Fifth Amendment? in: Masses & Mainstream 7:2(44-50) Feb'54. [on the history and meaning of the Fifth Amendment]. (2,942 words).*



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1954. On Receiving the Stalin Peace Award. in: Masses & Mainstream 7:5(35-37) May'54. [text of Fast's acceptance speech for the 1953 prize, April 22, 1954]. (1,147 words).*

This is the text of Mr. Fast's speech accepting the Stalin Peace Prize for 1953, which was presented to him at a reception on April 22 at the Hotel McAlpin in New York. The presentation was made by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, acting on behalf of the international jury which made the selection. As Dr. Du Bois stated, the jury wished to present the prize to Fast in person, but the U.S. State Department had refused the writer a visa. About 1,000 persons attended the presentation ceremony. Rev. William Howard Melish was chairman, and Paul Robeson, winner of the Stalin Peace Prize for 1952, took part in the proceedings...


1954. Jews and the Cry for Justice. in: Jewish Life, Nov.'54.


1955. The Literary Scene in America. in: Zeitschrift fur Anglistic und Amerikanshik 3(175-184) '55.


1955. My Father. in: Masses & Mainstream, pp 38-41, Jan '55. (2,472 words).*

editions


1955. A Dramatic Challenge. in: Masses & Mainstream, pp 55-59, June '55. [review of Steve Nelson's "The Thirteenth Juror"]. (1,957 words).*


1955. [review of Van Wyck Brooks' John Sloan: A Painter's Life]. in: Masses & Mainstream, p.17, July 1955. [review of Van Wyck Brooks: John Sloan: A Painter's Life].


1955. On Franz Weiskopf. in: Masses & Mainstream, p. 60, Nov '55. [on the death of Franz Weiskopf]. (224 words).*


1956. The Literary Scene in America. in: Zeitschrift fur Anglistic und Amerikanshik 4(64-72) '56.


1956. Incident at a University [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 3'56. [a literary test "confirms" that Fast is not a communist]. (1,044 words).


1956. Capital Punishment [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 5'56. [reaffirming Fast's total opposition to capital punishment]. (1,036 words).


1956. Ethics and Criticism [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 10'56. [why the right-wing press doesn't review left-wing works]. (1,013 words).


1956. An Eye For Detail [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 12, 1956. [on the hypocrisy of "middle class morality"]. (1,039 words).


1956. Justice and Death [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 16'56. [criticism of Soviet policy under Beria]. (1,040 words).


1956. Winds of Fear [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 19'56. [on the raid on the Daily Worker]. (1,051 words).


1956. The Intellectual [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 23'56. [on the relationship between the artist and society]. (1,322 words).


1956. Cosmopolitanism [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 26'56. [attacking the hypocrisy of the Soviet crime of "cosmopolitanism"]. (983 words).


1956. The Boss [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, Apr 30'56. [Robert Moses pushing through the Tavern on the Green parking lot as an example of bossism]. (1,037 words).


1956. The Lovable Atom [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 2'56. [Life Magazine's portrayal vs the reality of the Japanese feeling about H-bomb tests]. (950 words).


1956. What I Believe [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 7'56. ["It was the mighty force of socialism that destroyed Hitler..."]. (1,036 words).


1956. The Current Scene [criticizing the US and Soviet Union for denying citizens the right to free travel. in: Daily Worker, May 9'56.


1956. On Comparisons [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 10'56. [rejecting the Communist device of "Comparisons"]. (1,002 words).


1956. Freud and Science [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 14'56. [openly rejecting the Party's ban on psychoanalysis]. (1,123 words).


1956. The Soviet Union [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 17'56. ["the record of mistakes" and praise]. (1,063 words).


1956. Petty Villainy [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 21'56. [The republication of Fast's "Dreiser" with J. Farrell's introduction] (see also: Joseph Griffen, 1987). (1,003 words).


1956. The Tides of Tomorrow [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 24'56. [Why is the US government unable to comprehend what plain people think and how they will react?]. (1,041 words).


1956. The Disclaimer [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 28'56. [On disclaiming Communist association whenever undertaking any decent or humanistic act]. (1,086 words).


1956. The Madmen [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, May 31'56. [on the insanity of the nuclear arms race]. (1,056 words).


1956. The Need to Believe [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, June 4'56. [For ten years, we have been lied to, believed the lies...]. (1,052 words).


1956. Dialogue [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, June 7'56. [explaining the arrest of seven communists in Massachusetts...]. (939 words).


1956. Man's Hope [The Current Scene]. in: Daily Worker, June 12'56. [Fast's last DW column, reacting to the "secret" Khrushchev speech]. (1,247 words).


1956. A Letter from Howard Fast. in: Daily Worker, July 27'56, (headlined). [Reply to Eugene Lyons' Open Letter to Howard Fast]. (2,783 words). [Seidman F54]

editions


1957. [letter to Mr. Marine about "The Naked God"]. [dated Teaneck, NJ, Nov. 27, 1957]. (92 words).


1957. My Decision. in: Mainstream, p.29-38 (editor's comment 39-47), Mar'57. [on leaving the Communist Party] see responses: Comment by the Editors, More Comments on Howard Fast... (4,123 words).* [Seidman F56]

translations


1957. The Writer and the Commissar. in: Prospectus 1:1(31) Nov'57. [includes about 70% of The Naked God, published a few weeks later].


1957. On Leaving the Communist Party. (excerpt from The Naked God). in: Saturday Review of Literature, 40(5-17) Nov 16'57. (4,432 words).*


1958. Djilas, Milovan, Howard Fast & Alfred Kantorowicz. Vcherashnie kommmunisty o kommunizme. (in Russian). 40 pp, 21 cm, Izd-vo Soiuz borby za osvobozhdenie narodov Rossii. Miunkhen.


1958. The Only Honorable Thing a Communist Can Do. in: Progressive 22(35-38) Mar'58. [transcript of Fast's tv interview with Martin Agronsky, shortly after his break with the CP]. [Seidman F57]


1958. A Matter of Validity; what it means to him to be a Jew. in: Midstream 4(7-17) Spring'58. (6,592 words).

editions


1958. Classic Capitalism. in: Saturday Review, 41(39) Nov 1'58. [review of Earl Browder's "Marx and America"]. (760 words).*


1958. The Meadows. in: Esquire 50:6(62) Dec'58. [There's a wilderness within sight of Manhattan]. (1,823 words).*


1959. Mind That Moved Three Nations. in: Saturday Review, 42(34) Aug 15'59. [review of Alfred Owen Aldridge's "Man of Reason: The Life of Thomas Paine"]. (760 words).*


1959. The Ordeal of Boris Pasternak. in: Midstream 5:1(38-44) Winter'59.


196? (nd). [letter to Paul R. Reynolds: On Mill Point Prison]. ([1] page, typescript). (432 words). Columbia University Archives.


1961. [letter to Mrs. Alexander about "Spartacus"]. [dated New York City, Mar. 10, 1961]. (138 words).


1962. Rage Against the Night. in: Saturday Review. review of Upton Sinclair's "The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair".


1963. The Meaning of 'Galut' in American Today. in: Midstream 11:1(12) Mar'63. (contribution to Symposium).


1964. Scotland for Outsiders. in: Esquire, 61(69) Feb'64. (4,574 words).*


1966. Drive Your Own Locomotive. in: Esquire, 65:5(36) May'66. [Across America on the Twentieth Century and the Super Chief]. (4,371 words).*


1966. Christianity and Anti-Semitism. in: Midstream 12:9(68-69) Nov'66.


1966. Negro-Jewish Relations in America: A Symposium. in: Midstream 12:10(17-18) Dec'66. (857 words).

editions


1967. The Beauty and Mystery of Stonehenge. in: Saturday Review, 50(52-54) Feb 4'67. (2,454 words).


1969. In Search of the Welsh. in: Esquire, 72(142) Dec'69. (4,462 words).*


1970. The Stamp of Washington. in: Our American Heritage. 222 pp, (short paragraph - one of many authors). Harper and Row.


1986. Citizen Howard Fast (audio). 1 sound cassette (33 min.): analog, 1 7/8 ips. Recorded January 1970. Pacifica Radio Archive. Los Angeles, CA.


1989-1992. [columns]. in: New York Observer, 1989-1992. (many republished in War and Peace: Observations on Our Times, 1993. New York.


1991. [statement on Patriotism]. in: The Nation, 125th anniv. issue, July 15-22, 1991 (patriotism cover).


1992. What Are We Doing? in: The Courier-Journal, Forum, p.13A, Aug.6,1992. (editorial). (754 words). Louisville, KY.


1992. Help U.S.? No, It Will Destroy Families. in: Atlanta Constitution, A, 15(4) Aug 19'92. (North American Free Trade Agreement would not benefit US workers).


1992. Free-trade future: the horror. (editorial). in: Providence Journal, Sept.11,1992. (767 words). Providence, R.I.


1992. Did Washington's Wisecrack Tip the Balance? in: Americana. Dec 1, 1992,v.20,n.5,p6. (Was a bawdy comment by General Washington, as he was about to cross the Delaware, one of those small but crucial turning points in history?). (1,359 words).


1992. Our Unsingable Anthem. in: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) D-3, Dec 6'92. (718 words).


1993-. [columns]. in: Greenwich Time, 1993-. Greenwich, CT.


1993. To use expensive toys. in: The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Sunday, January 3, 1993. (originally appeared in Greenwich Time).


1993. Inventing America: We're All in It Together. in: The Baltimore Sun, Editorial section, page 15A, Wednesday, January 13, 1993. (originally appeared in Greenwich Time).


1993. Kissinger and the Constitution. in: Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul), News section, page 25A, Monday, January 25, 1993. (originally published in Greenwich Time).


1993. Inglorious Tale from the Mexican War. in: Americana. Feb 1'93,v.20 n.6, p.6. (During the war between Mexico and the United States in the 1840's, a U.S. battalion of Irish immigrants changed sides. Why?). (1,594 words).


1993. Dark Moment: Will the Plan Work? Who Knows? in: The Phoenix Gazette, Editorial/Opinion section, page A13, Tuesday, February 23, 1993. (Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service).


1993. Civilization Drowns in a Flood of Gossip. in: San Jose Mercury News, Perspective section, page 1C, Sunday, July 11, 1993. (originally published in Greenwich Time).


1993. We could use a 'Populist' alternative to the 2 parties. in: Greenwich Time, Dec.30'93. (751 words). Greenwich, CT.


1994. The Bobbitt case raises THE important question. in: Greenwich Time, Jan.20'94. (729 words). Greenwich, CT.


1995. Public discourse part of good life on NPR and PBS. in: Greenwich Time, Mar.2'95. (792 words). Greenwich, CT.



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