33 Facts About Alvah Bessie

Alvah Cecil Bessie was an American novelist, screenwriter and journalist.

Alvah Bessie was one of nearly 3,000 American volunteers who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and fought in the Spanish Civil War.

Alvah Bessie is perhaps best known as a member of the "Hollywood Ten", the group of film artists blacklisted by the entertainment industry for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Alvah Bessie was the younger of two sons of Daniel Nathan Cohen Bessie and Adeline Schlesinger Bessie.

Daniel Alvah Bessie died in 1921 and the family finances took a serious downturn.

However, this reversal of fortunes freed Alvah Bessie to pursue his artistic ambitions without the opposition of his father.

Alvah Bessie became an actor in the group, which led to a four-year period of theatre work in Provincetown as well as in the New York theatre world as a performer and stage manager.

Alvah Bessie was fluent in French and had already translated The Songs of Bilitis by Pierre Louys.

Alvah Bessie was employed for three months as a rewriteman for the daily newspaper Le Temps.

Alvah Bessie's first published short story, "Redbird", was written in Paris and appeared in the French literary journal, transition.

Alvah Bessie sold a few stories, essays and reviews to The New Republic, Scribner's, Collier's, Atlantic Monthly, and Saturday Review of Literature.

Alvah Bessie later cited Scribner's editor Kyle Crichton as an important mentor in his life, both from a political and writing standpoint.

Alvah Bessie continued to translate avant-garde French literature, including The Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau and Batouala by Rene Maran.

In 1935, Alvah Bessie won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his first novel, Dwell in the Wilderness.

Alvah Bessie was further radicalized by his conversations with fellow Brooklyn Eagle reporter Nat Einhorn who was a founder of the Newspaper Guild's New York local.

Alvah Bessie participated in the Ebro offensive from July to September 1938, eventually attaining the rank of sergeant-adjutant.

Alvah Bessie served as a correspondent for Volunteer for Liberty, an International Brigade publication.

Alvah Bessie recorded his daily experiences in a series of notebooks.

Alvah Bessie writes truly and finely of all that he could see.

Finally, in the winter of 1942, Alvah Bessie signed a contract with Warner Bros.

Alvah Bessie moved to California, joined the Screen Writers Guild and contributed screenplays for films such as Northern Pursuit, The Very Thought of You, and Hotel Berlin.

Alvah Bessie was one of the first ten "unfriendly" screenwriters and directors to testify before the HUAC, and who were soon labeled the "Hollywood Ten".

Alvah Bessie sold his screenplay for Passage West using Nedrick Young as a "front", but further film assignments dried up.

Alvah Bessie moved to San Francisco in 1951 and worked for a while with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Alvah Bessie stayed at the hungry i for over seven years.

Alvah Bessie gradually took on the role of stage manager and was known for his humorous introductions, spoken in "a rumbling voice with elegant diction," of performers such as Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce.

Alvah Bessie befriended Bruce and helped revise several of the comic's screenplays.

Alvah Bessie followed this with a non-fiction account entitled Inquisition in Eden.

Once the blacklist period ended, Alvah Bessie co-wrote and acted in the 1969 Spanish film Espana otra vez about a doctor returning to Spain for the first time since the Spanish Civil War.

Alvah Bessie offered reminiscences of the film production in his 1975 non-fiction book, Spain Again.

Alvah Bessie remained active in the Bay Area Chapter of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and was honored at the 39th Anniversary Dinner in 1975.

On 21 July 1985, Alvah Bessie died of a heart attack in Terra Linda, California.

In 2001, Dan Alvah Bessie published some of his father's previously uncollected work, notably his Spanish Civil War Notebooks.