Howard Fast

by Andrew Macdonald

Howard Fast, one of the most prolific American writers of the 20th century, has enjoyed wide popularity for his writing and suffered from great notoriety for his politics, but has never been given full credit for his contribution to the essential tales of American culture, the American Revolution, and immigrant acculturation. Although his novels have sold close to eighty million copies, this is the first book-length critical study of his work. In addition to an overview of his fiction, it offers close, critical readings of his historical novels of the American Revolution, Citizen Tom Paine, April Morning, and his most recent, Seven Days in June; his novels about slavery, Freedom Road and Spartacus; and his popular series about the American experience, The Immigrants. A biographical chapter is partly based on an extensive interview granted by Fast exclusively for this book. A comprehensive bibliography completes the work. . This critical study begins with a biographical chapter that lin