A Very Dangerous Citizen

Abraham Lincoln Polonsky and the Hollywood Left

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by Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner

Type

Biographies

Subject

Director > Abraham Polonsky

Keywords

Abraham Polonsky, blacklist, politics

Publishing date

2002

Publisher

University of California Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 285 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN-10
ISBN-13

0-520-23672-6
978-0-520-23672-1

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Book Presentation:
When he was summoned before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951, Abraham Lincoln Polonsky (1911-1999) was labeled "a very dangerous citizen" by Harold Velde, a congressman from Illinois. Lawyer, educator, novelist, labor organizer, radio and television scriptwriter, film director and screenwriter, wartime intelligence operative, and full-time radical romantic, Polonsky was blacklisted in Hollywood for refusing to be an informer. The New York Times called his blacklisting the single greatest loss to American film during the McCarthy era, and his expressed admirers include Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, Warren Beatty, and Harry Belafonte. In this first critical and cultural biography of Abraham Polonsky, Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner present both an accomplished consideration of a remarkable survivor of America's cultural cold war and a superb study of the Hollywood left.

The Bronx-born son of immigrant parents, Polonsky—in the few years after the end of World War II and just before the blacklist—had one of the most distinguished careers in Hollywood. He wrote two films that established John Garfield's postwar persona, Body and Soul (1947), still the standard for boxing films and the model for such movies as Raging Bull and Pulp Fiction; and Force of Evil (1948), the great noir drama that he also directed. Once blacklisted, Polonsky quit working under his own name, yet he proved to be one of television's most talented writers. Later in life he became the most acerbic critic of the Hollywood blacklist's legacy while writing and directing films such as Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1970).

A Very Dangerous Citizen goes beyond biography to help us understand the relationship between art and politics in American culture and to uncover the effects of U.S. anticommunism and anti-Semitism. Rich in anecdote and in analysis, it provides an informative and entertaining portrait of one of the most intriguing personalities of twentieth-century American culture.

About the authors:
Paul Buhle is Lecturer in the American Civilization Department at Brown University and coauthor of Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist (1997). Dave Wagner is the former political editor of the Arizona Republic. He has written on film for Cineaste and Filmhaeftet (Stockholm).

Press Reviews:
"Buhle and Wagner have succeeded in bringing Polonsky’s history back to life: both he and the book deserve the attention."— Labour/Le Travail

"Buhle and Wagner may sometimes lose readers in their descriptions of sectarianism on the left, but they do an admirable job of drawing attention to an artist whose work is often overlooked today."— Books For The Western Library

"Abe Polonsky was fascinating, brilliant, mercurial, a giant of our time. He held the line against McCarthyism in all its forms and phases all his life. He did it with vigor and the joy of fighting for right. His history is the best of the left. As a man he was charming, amusing, concerned—a great listener and a greater raconteur, and an even better friend. This much needed book is a tribute to him."—Lee Grant, Oscar-winning director/actress

"A long-overdue critical biography of a significant talent and political intellect lost to the cold war waged in and on Hollywood. Buhle and Wagner expertly trace the roots of the Hollywood Red Scare to the streets of New York, the streets that produced the likes of writer-director-activist-teacher Abe Polonsky."—Jon Lewis, author of Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry

See the publisher website: University of California Press

See the complete filmography of Abraham Polonsky on the website: IMDB ...