The Red Scare that engulfed the U.S. in the years immediately after World War II ruined many careers, and any affiliation with the Communist Party was enough to get you blacklisted.
So it was that popular novelist Howard fast found himself suddenly a pariah because of his membership in the Communist Party USA.
A contentious appearance before the house Un=American Activities Committee in 1950 resulted in a three month prison sentence for contempt of Congress. But it was while serving his sentence that Howard Fast began working on the novel that would turn out to be his most famous work: Spartacus.
By the end of the decade, Fast’s blacklist was over, And he departed from the Communist Party, disenchanted with its leadership.
In 1990 Fast published a memoir called Being Red. And that’s when I have a chance to meet him.
So here now, from 1990, Howard fast
Howard fast died in 2003. He was 88.
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