Howard Fast

Howard Melvin Fast (November 11, 1914 – March 12, 2003) was an American author and television writer. Also writing under the pen names E.V. Cunningham, Behn Boruch, and Walter Ericson, his career spanned almost seven decades and several genres, including historical novels and noir. Fast mainly wrote novels, as well as short stories, poems, plays and non-fiction. Among his best known work are Spartacus (1951), April Morning (1961), and The Immigrants (1977). Several of Fast's novels have been adapted into movies and television series, most notably Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960). A staunch communist early in his life, Fast was jailed in the 1950s after testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.