Leftist playwright, novelist, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Albert Maltz was a gifted artist who proved himself in multiple genres. He was also famous as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film industry figures who challenged the constitutional legitimacy of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the Cold War. For refusing to cooperate with the congressional investigation into alleged communist subversion, Maltz was fined, jailed for ten months, and thwarted as a writer for almost twenty years.
Both of Maltz’s parents were Jewish immigrants. His mother, Lena, was born in Poland and brought to New York as an infant in 1876. As a girl she dreamed of becoming a teacher but was forced to quit school in her early teens to work in a garment factory, where she
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Citation: Chura, Patrick. "Albert Maltz". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 January 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2903, accessed 25 April 2024.]
