Cleareyed, sober, convincing account of an American working-class
writer drawn into the Communist Party (1944-1957), of the witch
hunts and terror sponsored by the US government, and of going to
jail for zealous idealism. By the author of Citizen Tom Paine,
Freedom Road, etc. Fast's autobiography joins Jack London's Martin
Eden as a classic story of the birth of a self-educated writer, his
grueling efforts to learn to write while in an abyss of poverty,
his early rejections and then first sale - at 17 - to Amazing
Stories. By his 21st birthday, Fast had published three novels,
trashed two others, and established himself with several sales to
the slicks. But his reputation really bloomed with The Children, a
short novel published in Story, about a black kid lynched in the
Bronx: the magazine was banned throughout New England, and sales
soared. By Fast's account, his Freedom Road (1944) became the
largest-selling serious novel of the century - put into 86
languages, pirated and sold in countless millions in nearly 100
countries. This fame made him a target for the cultural division of
the Communist Party, the main haven for US socialists. Feted in
Hollywood by famous writers, actors, and artists who were party
members, he at last joined - the CP was the only serious choice for
one given to human rights, he says, and Russia was our ally at the
time. Fast captures those years with tremendous warmth: "But never
- and I write this 36 years after I left the party - never did I
hear, at any Communist Party meeting, that pervasive and unending
slander, the overthrow of the government by force and violence.
Never did I hear it mentioned or discussed, and if it had been, it
would have been put down immediately as brainless nonsense." He
regards the 1100 pages of FBI notes on him (recovered through the
Freedom of Information Act) as a testament "proving that I had not
lived a worthless existence but had done my best to help and
nourish the poor and oppressed. . ." The story of his vilification,
imprisonment, and blacklisting by publishers is searing, his
recovery by self. publishing Spartacus inspiring - as in his
56-year marriage, which survived much crunching, bashing, and
suffering. Citizen Fast's masterpiece - and long life to it.
(Kirkus Reviews)
This edition brings the story of 20th-century Southern politics up
to the present day and the virtual triumph of Southern
Republicanism. It considers the changes in party politics,
leadership, civil rights and black participation in Southern
politics.
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