Alvah Bessie life and biography

Alvah Bessie (Alvah Cecil Bessie), born June 4, 1904, in New York, NY; died of a heart attack, July 21, 1985, in Terra Linda, CA; son of Daniel N. and Adeline (Schlesinger) Bessie; married Sylviane Molla (a multi-lingual secretary), June 16, 1963; children: (previous marriages) Daniel, David, Eva. Education: Columbia College, A.B., 1924. Military/Wartime Service: Spanish Republican Army, Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1938; sergeant-adjutant.

"Sidelights"

A journalist, screenwriter, and novelist, Alvah Bessie began his writing career as a critic with the Brooklyn Eagle during the 1930's. He joined the American Communist party during this period and was instrumental in the formation of the Newspaper Guild. In 1938 Bessie went to Spain to fight for the Communist forces in that country's civil war, an experience that resulted in his book Men in Battle. During World War II Bessie wrote screenplays for Warner Brothers, including "Hotel Berlin" and "Objective: Burma."

Following a 1947 investigation of the movie industry by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Alvah Bessie spent a year in prison for "contempt of court." He and nine other Hollywood figures, collectively known as the "Hollywood Ten," refused to answer the committee's question regarding membership in the Communist Party--a question they considered a violation of their privacy and civil rights. After being released from prison, Bessie was blacklisted for many years and unable to sell his writing. He then took employment as the editor of a union newspaper and as stage manager at the San Francisco nightclub "The Hungry i." Bessie told CA that his prison term, together with his military service with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, were "the two activities in a lifetime of which I am particularly proud."

In 1965 Bessie wrote Inquisition in Eden, an autobiography. His other books include The Symbol, Spain Again, and One for My Baby. Bessie's novels have been published in England, Spain, East and West Germany, Israel, the Soviet Union, and several other countries.

AWARDS
Guggenheim fellowship in creative writing, 1935; Academy Award nomination, 1946, for "Objective Burma;" Dombrowski Medal, Polish Veterans of International Brigade, Federation Internationale des Resistants, 1946; National Endowment for the Arts writing fellowship, 1979.

CAREER
Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, NY, editor of Sunday magazine, 1936-37; New Masses, New York, NY, film, drama, and book critic, 1939-42; Warner Brothers Studio, Burbank, CA, contract screenwriter, 1943-45; free-lance screenwriter, Hollywood, CA, 1946-50.

WRITINGS:

* Dwell in the Wilderness (novel), Covici-Friede, 1935.
* Men in Battle (autobiography), Scribner, 1939.
* Bread and a Stone (novel), Modern Age, 1941.
* (Editor) The Heart of Spain (anthology), Veterans of Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1952.
* The Un-Americans (novel), Cameron Associates, 1957.
* Inquisition in Eden (autobiography), Macmillan, 1965.
* The Symbol (novel; also see below), Random House, 1967.
* Spain Again (autobiography), Chandler & Sharp, 1975.
* One for My Baby (novel), Holt, 1980.
* Alvah Bessie's Short Fiction, introduction by Gabriel Miller, Chandler & Sharp (Novato, CA), 1982.
* (Editor with Albert Prago) Our Fight: Writings by Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Spain, 1936-1939, introduction by Ring Lardner, Jr., Monthly Review Press with the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1987.
* Alvah Bessie's Spanish Civil War Notebooks, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 2002.

SCREENPLAYS

* Northern Pursuit, Warner Brothers, 1943.
* The Very Thought of You, Warner Brothers, 1944.
* Hotel Berlin, Warner Brothers, 1945.
* Objective: Burma, Warner Brothers, 1945.
* Smart Woman, Allied Artists, 1948.
* Espana Otra Very, 1968.
* The Sex Symbol (based on Bessie's novel The Symbol), American Broadcasting Co., 1973.

CONTRIBUTOR

* Preface to College Prose, Gott-Behnke, 1935.
* This Winged World, Coward, 1943.
* A Soldiers' Reader, Heritage, 1943.
* The 30's, Simon & Schuster, 1962.
* Carlos Baker, editor, Ernest Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels, Scribner, 1962.
* Walter Lowenfels, editor, Poets of Today, International Publishers, 1964.

TRANSLATOR FROM THE FRENCH

* Pierre Louys, Songs of Bilitis, Macy-Masius, 1926.
* Emile Gabory, Alias Bluebeard, Brewer & Warren, 1930.
* Theophile Gautier, Mlle. de Maupin, Kendall, 1930.
* Octave Mirbeau, Torture Garden, Kendall, 1931.
* (And author of introduction) Rene Maran, Batoula, Limited Editions Club, 1932.
* Roger Vercel, In Sight of Eden, Harcourt, 1934.

Contributor of stories, articles, and criticism to magazines and newspapers in the United States, England, France, Austria, U.S.S.R., Germany, and Spain, including Criterion, Scribner's, Collier's, Esquire, Yankee, New Masses, Theatre Arts, Screenwriter, and New York Herald Tribune Books. Author of radio and television plays for Radio Berlin International, DDR Deutscher Fernsehfunk, New Zealand Broadcasting Corp., British Broadcasting Corp., and for television in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Read more