Budd Schulberg

I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Budd Schulberg, author of What Makes Sammy Run? and screenwriter of On The Waterfront and many other books and films. I read Sammy earlier this year and absolutely loved it, so much so that when I discovered, much to my surprise, that Schulberg was still alive, I wanted to contact him and tell him how much his writing has meant to me. Now that won't happen, so the next best thing I can do is to read as many of his books as I can get my hands on.

Like his On The Waterfront collaborator, director Elia Kazan, Schulberg had a knotty relationship with Hollywood, going so far as to "name names" against some of the Hollywood 10 who were ostracized for supposed un-American activities during the height of the Red Scare. I'm sure it was a tortured decision for him, but his rationale does make some sense:

“They say that you testified against your friends, but once they supported the party against me, even though I did have some personal attachments, they were really no longer my friends,” he said. “And I felt that if they cared about real freedom of speech, they should have stood up for me when I was fighting the party.”

That must have been a very difficult era to live through, when one's loyalties to friends and country were constantly being questioned, all in service of the largely mythical threat of Communism. This is yet another case of thoroughly admiring the writer while having considerably mixed feelings about the human being behind the writer. So though my enjoyment of reading Schulberg will always be somewhat leavened, I'll still read everything of his that I can, and remember both the difficulties of his life as well as inspiring words like these:

“It’s the writer’s responsibility to stand up against that power. The writers are really almost the only ones, except for very honest politicians, who can make any dent on that system. I tried to do that. And that’s affected me my whole life.”