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. The book was released in 1939, shortly before the German invasion of Poland.

Trumbo joined the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) in 1943. In 1946, he hosted a secret CPUSA meeting to discuss putting Communist propaganda in Hollywood movies. 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.