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.
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 Texarkarna Prison 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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