Howard Fast, 88, best selling author

Howard Fast of Greenwich, a best-selling author who specialized in class-conscious historical novels such as Spartacus, Citizen Tom Paine and Conceived in Liberty, died Wednesday, March 12, at his home. He was 88 years old.
Mr. Fast lived on Florida Hill Road in the 1960s and early 1970s. Among the books he wrote here was The Hessian, a Revolutionary War novel set in and around Ridgefield.
A high-school dropout, Mr. Fast published his first novel in 1933 — before he was 20. In all, he wrote more than 75 books and his worldwide sales topped 80 million copies. Besides dozens of novels, he also penned plays, essays and nonfiction works. He also published mysteries under the pseudonym E.V. Cunningham.
Even though he continued to turn out books when he was well into his 80s — the most recent was the 2000 novel, Greenwich — he also took time to write a regular column in the Greenwich newspaper. Almost all of his writing was done on a 1956 Olympia manual typewriter.
Howard Melvin Fast was born in New York City on Nov. 11, 1914, a son of Barney and Ida Miller Fast. His father was an iron worker and his mother died when he was eight.
In the 1940s, Citizen Tom Paine and The American, a fictionalized biography of Illinois Gov. John Peter Altgeld, became best sellers — but brought him trouble from the House Un-American Activities Committee, which labeled them as communist propaganda. Citizen Tom Paine was banned in high school libraries in New York City.
In 1945, a congressional committee, which investigated communist activities, demanded he identify people who helped build a hospital in France for anti-fascist fighters. A member of the American Communist Party from 1944 to 1957, Mr. Fast refused and after years of legal battles was jailed for contempt.
He spent three months in prison, was blacklisted for years, and his books were taken off library shelves.
Out of this experience he wrote Spartacus, his populist version of the slave revolt in ancient Rome. The novel was rejected by several publishers, many of whom received visits from FBI agents, and Mr. Fast eventually released it himself. It became a success that led to an all-star film version — produced by Kirk Douglas and featuring Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton — in 1960.
While Mr. Fast was the subject of an 1,100-page FBI file in the United States, he was a hero abroad: The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda dedicated verse to him and Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera also expressed their admiration.
Many of his historical novels were set during the American Revolution. Citizen Tom Paine was a sympathetic look at the most militant of the Founding Fathers and Conceived in Liberty honored the rank and file at Valley Forge.
In 1953 he became the only American besides Paul Robeson, a close friend, to win the Stalin International Peace Prize. But Mr. Fast wrote critically about Soviet leader Josef Stalin and left the party after the Soviet Union’s crushing of an uprising in Hungary.
In the memoir Being Red, published in 1990, Mr. Fast wrote: “In the party I found ambition, narrowness and hatred; I also found love and dedication and high courage and integrity — and some of the noblest human beings I have ever known.”
Among his other popular, mostly historical novels were Freedom Road, April Morning, and The Last Frontier. Many of his books were made into movies.
After living in Ridgefield Mr. Fast moved to California, then Greenwich, and in the late 1980s, Redding. He moved back to Greenwich in the early 1990s.
His first wife, Bette, died in 1997 after 57 years of marriage. In 1999, he married Mimi Denis.
Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, Jonathan Fast of Cos Cob; a daughter, Rachel BenAvi of Sarasota, Fla.; a stepson, Connor Fast; a brother, Julius Fast of New York; and three grandchildren.
Services were private.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Fellowship of Reconciliation, 521 North Broadway, Nyack, NY 10960, or The Interfaith Alliance, 1331 H Street NW, 11th Floor, Washington, DC 20005.