Albert Maltz
(1908-1985)
Both as a citizen ans as a writer , Albert Maltz''s activity has been inspired by his progressive convictions , by his attachment to socialism.He is a representative writer of the combative literature of the United States ,He was born in Brooklyn , New York, in 1908, of working parents who had immigrated into the U.S.A. After graduating from university , he worked for various progressive organizations and magazines devoted to the workers'' struggle against any form of fascism and racial discrimination.He joined a workers''theatrical company "The Theatre Union" which influenced his artistic conception.A large number of his players were written for this company.
Albert Maltz began his literary activity in the earlynineteen thirties , at a time when a very severe economic crisis broke out in the U.S.A., when signs of fascization became quite evident in America''s public life.He sided with the Communist Party of the U.S.A. in its efforts to defend the workers and small farmers''rights against the monopoly capitalists , to stem fascism, to set up a democratic people''s culture.
In 1947, as a script writer at Hollywood and member of "The Hollywood Ten", Maltz was framed up for contempt of the Un-American Activities Committee;he was sentenced and imprisoned.He has lived in Mexico for the last few years.
Albert Maltz''s work is dedicated to the cause of real
democracy and social
progress.As a talented dramatist and a master of the short-story, Albert Maltz always chooses typical characters and typical situations;his conclusions have , therefore , a generalizing power."Black Pit", Private Hicks", "The Morrison Case" are among his best plays.Well known are his novels "The Underground Stream" and "The Cross and the Arrow", in which he exposes the inhumanity of fascism and portrays fighters for a juster social and political order.His short stories have been collected under the title "The Way Things Are".