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Alvah Bessie was born in New York on 4th June, 1904. After attending Columbia University he worked as an actor and stage manager in Massachusetts.
In 1928 Bessie had his first short-story, Redbird, published. He worked for the New Yorker before his novel, Dwell in the Wilderness, appeared in 1935.
Bessie held strong left-wing views and during the Spanish Civil War was a member of the International Brigades. On his return he wrote a book, Men in Battle (1939) about his experiences in Spain. He was also appointed as drama and film reviewer of the New Masses (1939-43).
Bessie moved to Hollywood and two of his screenplays were produced by Warner Brothers, Northern Pursuit (1943) and The Very Thought of You (1944). His next screenplay, the extremely patriotic, Objective Burma (1945) was nominated for an Academy Award. This was followed by Hotel Berlin (1945), Ruthless (1948) and Smart Woman (1948).
After the Second World War the House of Un-American Activities Committee began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. In September 1947, the HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named several people who they accused of holding left-wing views.
Bessie appeared before the HUAC on 28th October, 1947, but like, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., Samuel Ornitz and John Howard Lawson, he refused to answer any questions. Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this.
The House of Un-American Activities Committee and the courts during appeals disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of Congress and Bessie was sentenced to twelve months in Texarkana Federal Correctional Institution and fined $1,000.
Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, Bessie worked as a stage manager in San Francisco. Bessie, who left the American Communist Party in 1954, resumed writing and published several novels including The Un-Americans (1957), The Symbol (1966) and One For My Baby (1980). He also wrote Inquisition in Eden (1965), an account of his experiences with the HUAC.
Alvah Bessie died of a heart attack in Terra Linda, California, on 21st July, 1985. His son, Dan Bessie, directed a movie, Hard Travelling (1986), that was based on his father's novel, Bread and Stone.
(1) Alvah Bessie, Men in Battle (1939)
I wanted to work (for the first time) in a large body of men, to submerge myself in the mass, seeking neither distinction nor preferment - the obverse of my activities the past several years - and in this way to achieve: self-discipline, patience and resignation, unselfishness. In fine, to complete the destruction of my early training in order to build again a life that would be geared to other men and the world-events that circumscribed their lives.
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