Dalton Trumbo
Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) was an American screenwriter, author, Communist, and member of the Hollywood Ten.
Johnny Got His Gun and HUAC
His most famous work is perhaps Johnny Got His Gun, a bitterly anti-war novel that won him the National Book Sellers Award in 1939. The book follows the thoughts of a young World War I American infantryman who becomes a quadruple amputee, as well as deaf, mute, and blind. Having no way to communicate with the outside world, the main character spends most of the book reminiscing about his life and meditating on the futility of war and medical ethics. The book was released in 1939, shortly before the German invasion of Poland. In 1941, during the Second World War, the publishers allowed the book to go out of print. When fans wrote to Trumbo requesting copies of the book, he turned their names over to the FBI, questioning their commitment to the allied war effort.[1]
Trumbo was a member of the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) from 1943 to 1948. In 1946, he hosted a CPUSA meeting, allegedly to discuss putting Communist propaganda in Hollywood movies.[2] At that time, the Soviet Union was becoming America's Cold War enemy, and it controlled the CPUSA. In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee called him to testify about Communist influence in Hollywood. Trumbo refused, and spent 11 months in prison. He, along with nine other Communists who refused, are known as the Hollywood Ten, and had difficulties getting scriptwriting jobs and often worked under a pseudonym. However, after receiving full writing credits on such movies as Spartacus and Exodus, he was reinstated into the Writers' Guild of America.[3]
Trumbo's last writing credit was a 1971 screenplay for a movie version of Johnny Got His Gun. Trumbo died of lung cancer in 1976.
Notes
- ↑ Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got his Gun. 1939, introduction.
- ↑ Naming Names, by Victor S. Navasky, 1980 book, p.78
- ↑ The Internet Movie Database