John Sanford or John B. Sanford, born Julian Lawrence Shapiro (May 31, 1904 – March 6, 2003), was an American screenwriter and prose writer who wrote 24 books. The ''Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature'' describes him as, "Perhaps the most outstanding neglected novelist."
A one-time member of the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, after he and his wife Marguerite Roberts refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee, they were blacklisted and unable to work in Hollywood for nearly a decade.
Sanford wrote half of his books after he was 80. He published a 5-volume autobiography, for which he received a
PEN/Faulkner Award
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Fi ...
and the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' Lifetime Achievement Award. He left three unpublished novels and was writing up until a month before his death at 98.
Biography
Julian Shapiro was born in
Harlem, New York
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...
to a first-generation
American mother and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n immigrant father, who was a lawyer. Both were
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
. His mother died in 1914 when he was only 10, which marked his life. He attended local public schools as a boy.
After graduating from
Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...
in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, Shapiro studied law at
Fordham University, obtaining his degree in 1929. A childhood friend of
Nathanael West
Nathanael West (born Nathan Weinstein; October 17, 1903 – December 22, 1940) was an American writer and screenwriter. He is remembered for two darkly satirical novels: ''Miss Lonelyhearts'' (1933) and ''The Day of the Locust'' (1939), set r ...
, Shapiro decided to focus on writing when West said he was writing a book.
Shapiro then wrote for ''avant-garde'' magazines (''The New Review'', ''Tambour'', ''Pagany'', ''
Contact
Contact may refer to:
Interaction Physical interaction
* Contact (geology), a common geological feature
* Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye
* Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects
* ...
'') and gave up working as a lawyer. In the summer of 1931, isolated in a log cabin in the
Adirondacks
The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular d ...
, he finished his first novel, ''The Water Wheel''. When he was close to publishing his second book, ''The Old Man's Place'', his friend West (born Weinstein), suggested he change his name to one less identifiably Jewish. Shapiro used the name of a character from his first book and published his second under the pseudonym of John B. Sanford (which he adopted as his legal name in 1940). They both thought that
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
could hurt their book sales. In 1935, the success of ''The Old Man's Place'' allowed Sanford to consider a
screenwriter's career, and he moved to
Hollywood.
Nathanaël West, Introduction by Jonathan Lethem, Afterword by John Sanford, ''Miss Lonelyhearts and the Day of the Locust'', New Directions Publishing, 2009
Sanford: "While there, I completed The Water Wheel, wrote a series of short stories and began a second novel, The Old Man's Place. That novel ultimately took me to Hollywood and Paramount Pictures. One of those stories ended my friendship with West ..."
In 1936, Sanford was hired by Paramount Pictures, where he met his future wife Marguerite Roberts, a screenwriter. The same year, he became involved in the Communist Party of the United States
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
and would never renounce his political convictions. In 1939 Roberts signed the first of many contracts with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
; she was one of the most respected and best-paid screenwriters of Hollywood. She was the moneymaker of the couple. Together, they wrote the scenario of ''Honky Tonk
A honky-tonk (also called honkatonk, honkey-tonk, or tonk) is both a bar that provides country music for the entertainment of its patrons and the style of music played in such establishments. It can also refer to the type of piano ( tack piano) ...
'' (1941). When Sanford was later offered a contract with MGM, Roberts encouraged him to devote his effort to his personal writing, which he did.
While Sanford continued as a member of the Communist Party, Roberts was not as strongly committed. She became a member after meeting him, but turned back her card in 1947. Their associations resulted in their being called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. They both refused to give names, invoking the fifth amendment. This effectively ended their Hollywood careers. Roberts was blacklisted from 1951 to 1962. In 1957 they moved to Montecito, California, near Santa Barbara.
Literary works
''The People From Heaven'' (1943) is considered Sanford's masterpiece. The novel tells of a small-town shop owner who rapes a young African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
woman, beats to death a Native American, and tries to get rid of the only Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
in the town. In turn, the shop owner is finally killed by the black woman. At the time, the poet Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...
lauded the book, and poet William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.
In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
said it's "the most important book of fiction published here in the last 20 years."[
Sanford later turned to the biographical and autobiographical genre. He published half of his works after he was 80. He created a gallery of small portraits that dramatized his stories, making them more accessible and colorful. ''The Color of the Air: Scenes From the Life of an American Jew'' (1985), the first volume of his five-volume autobiography, covered 1904–1927. Four other titles followed, which earned him the ]PEN/Faulkner Award
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Fi ...
and the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' Lifetime Achievement Award.
After Roberts died in 1989, Sanford devoted his writing to exploring their more than 50-year marriage. In spite of vision troubles, he was writing one month before his death at 98. According to Tim Rutten,
His books are a stunning fusion of formal experimentation and supple, lyric prose. There is nothing like them anywhere in American letters. Though he sometimes was compared to the young John Dos Passos, Sanford's work was so original that it confounded critics and their categories -- probably to his professional detriment.
Sanford left three unpublished books: ''A Dinner of Herbs'', about the women he knew; ''A Citizen of No Mean City'', about his father; and ''Little Sister Spoken For,'' about the first five years of his marriage with Marguerite Roberts. He also contributed to a book about Martin Berkeley
Martin Berkeley (August 21, 1904 − May 6, 1979) was a Hollywood and television screenwriter who collaborated with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s by naming dozens of Hollywood artists as Communists or Communist s ...
, the informer who gave more than 150 names (including the Sanfords) to the inquiry committee in 1951. Jack Mearns was appointed literary executor. A psychology teacher at the California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...
, he said that Sanford, in his story "Judas and Inquiry" for the book on Berkeley, explored the mind of a man who would inform on others.[Tim Rutten, "Sanford's originality came through to the end"]
''Los Angeles Times,'' 8 March 2003, accessed 12 May 2011
In March 2020, Sanford's first novel, ''The Water Wheel,'' was reprinted under his real name (Julian L. Shapiro) by Tough Poets Press, with an introduction by Sanford's bibliographer, Jack Mearns. In 2021, his novels ''Make My Bed In Hell '' and ''The Old Man’s Place '' were re-released, with new introductions by Mearns, by Brash Books.
Published works
As Julian L. Shapiro:
*''The Water Wheel'', The Dragon Press, 1933.
* ''Tambour'', University of Wisconsin Press, 2002. (Facsimile edition of a 1930 French literary periodical that contained a contribution by Shapiro)
As John Sanford:
* ''The Old Man's Place'', New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1935.
* ''Seventy Times Seven'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939.
* ''The People from Heaven'', New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943.
* ''A Man without Shoes'', Los Angeles: Plantin Press, 1951.
* ''The Land That Touches Mine'', Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1953.
* ''Every Island Fled Away'', New York: W.W. Norton, 1964.
* ''The $300 Man'', Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967.
* ''A More Goodly Country: A Personal History of America'', New York, Horizon Press, 1975.
* ''Adirondack Stories'', Santa Barbara, Capra Press, 1976.
* ''Intruders in Paradise'', University of Illinois Press, 1997
* ''Adirondack Stories'', Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1976.
* ''View From This Wilderness: American Literature as History'', Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1977.
* ''To Feed Their Hopes. A Book of American Women'', University of Illinois Press, 1980.
* ''The Winters of That Country: Tales of the Man Made Seasons'', Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1984.
* ''The Color of the Air: Scenes from the Life of an American Jew, Volume 1'', Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press
Black Sparrow Press is a New England based independent book publisher, known for literary fiction and poetry.
History
Black Sparrow was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1966 by John Martin in order to publish the works of Charles Bukowski ...
, 1985.
* ''The Waters of Darkness: Scenes from the Life of an American Jew, Volume 2'', Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1986
* ''A Very Good Land to Fall With: Scenes from the Life of an American Jew, Volume 3'', Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1987.
* ''A Walk in the Fire: Scenes from the Life of an American Jew, Volume 4'', Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1989.
* ''The Season, It Was Winter: Scenes from the Life of an American Jew, Volume 5'', Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1991.
* ''Maggie: A Love Story'', Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, 1993.
* ''The View from Mt. Morris: A Harlem Boyhood'', New York: Barricade Books, 1994.
* ''We Have a Little Sister: Marguerite: The Midwest Years'', Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1995.
* ''A Palace of Silver: A Memoir of Maggie Roberts'', Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 2003.
* (with Jonathan Lethem and Nathanael West) ''Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust'', New Directions Publishing, 2009.
Biography
* Jack Mearns ''John Sanford. An annotated bibliography'', New Castle, Oak Knoll Press, 2008.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanford, John
1904 births
2003 deaths
People from Harlem
Jewish American writers
Members of the Communist Party USA
People from Montecito, California
Fordham University alumni
Lafayette College alumni
Hollywood blacklist
Victims of McCarthyism
Writers from California
Writers from Manhattan
Communist writers
Burials at Santa Barbara Cemetery