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CHANDLER RAYMOND: (1888-1959) American-British novelist and screenwriter, a founder of the hard-
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Beschreibung
CHANDLER RAYMOND: (1888-1959) American-British novelist and screenwriter, a founder of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. A remarkable, lengthy T.L.S., Raymond Chandler, three pages (separate leaves), 4to, La Jolla, California, 15th January 1951, to the Editor of The Author, the quarterly journal of The Society of Authors. Chandler intelligently addresses the subject of the Hollywood blacklist of professional individuals believed to have been Communists or sympathisers and writes, in part, 'The Statement by Mr. Woodrow Wyatt M.P. on the subject of the Hollywood Ten seemed to me at the time something less than crystal clear on the very important point that Communism was not an issue in the trial and conviction of these men…..but what troubles me is that your correspondents seem to take it for granted that the Hollywood Ten were convicted of an offense with which they were not charged, with which they could not be charged, because it was not a crime. They were indicted for contempt of a lawfully-constituted Congressional Committee, in that before a hearing of that Committee they in effect, although not categorically, refused to state whether they were or ever had been members of the Communist Party. They were charged with, tried for, and convicted of nothing else. It is quite true that after each of these recalcitrant witnesses was ejected from the witness chair on the orders of the Chairman of the Committee, certain evidence was read into the record which purported to show that the Ten had at one time been card-carrying Communists. This evidence has not been subjected to the kind of scrutiny it would get in a court of law. It may be erroneous, it may even be faked. We are at liberty to disregard it. We should disregard it. The right of cross examination is fundamental to our legal system. A Congressional Committee is not a court of law and is not compelled to give that right. Therefore the evidence it adduces can be no more than presumptive. Certain of the Ten may have been regular party line Communists at the time of the hearings. Certain others may have been Communists in the past and have ceased to be Communists. So why did they not say so? That of course is the heart of the matter. The simple fact is that they were afraid to answer categorically. So they tried to make speeches, to read prepared statements, to talk about the films they had worked on, to declare that they were ready and willing and even anxious to answer the questions of the Committee, if allowed to do so in their own way. But they would not say yes or no, and they would not refuse to say yes or no. In the public mind there was only one conclusion, which was that they could have made only one answer…..I think they had very bad legal advice, and that they made a very bad mistake at a very bad time and in a very bad place. But we should do them the justice of remembering that they were in a very tough spot. Not only were they "hostile witnesses" before a Committee which was investigating, or purporting to investigate, "subversive influences" in Hollywood, but they were on trial before the motion picture industry which gave them their livelihood. If they admitted to being or to having once been Communists, then they convicted the motion picture industry of employing Communists and ex-Communists to write and direct its pictures. And this was exactly the sort of thing that the Committee was after……at least insofar as its Chairman controlled it (an ignorant mountebank who afterwards went to jail as a crook, in case you forget)…..does anyone really suppose that the crucifixion of ten writers and directors chosen at random from a long list was a blow struck in the defense of this Republic against Stalinism? What then could the Hollywood Ten have done? You may say that they could have denied being Communists or ex-Communists and let the Committee prove it against them…..This is not an age of reason or tolerance. And Hollywood would have discarded them in any case, because they would have been smeared, and Hollywood would be smeared through them. I think they had only one chance, and they lacked the courage or the understanding to take it. It is easy to be wise now, but at the same time I personally felt exactly the same: they could have refused categorically, and not by evasion, to answer the Committee's questions on the ground that the Committee had no legal right to force them to answer such questions. They might still have lost - - granted; but they would have stated a case on which the courts had not then given a decision…..More important to them personally, they would have taken some of the heat off Hollywood…..In a certain grim sense let us admit that the Hollywood Ten got what was coming to them. In a critical moment they lacked the courage to stand up and be counted. Would the rest of us, faced with the same problem, have a clearer courage? Let us have a little justice. These ten men were not convicted of being Communists; they were convicted, essentially, of not being heroes. But in Hollywood you don't learn to be a hero. You learn to be expedient - - or you get the hell out. And the dilemma of the expedient man is that he can never be sure whose throat he is cutting. It may be his own'. A lucid letter written in the wake of one of the most controversial moments in the history of Hollywood, resulting in the imprisonment of the Hollywood Ten, including Dalton Trumbo and Edward Dmytryk, who defied the House Un-American Activities Committee. With a few annotations etc. made in preparation for publication. VG
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CHANDLER RAYMOND: (1888-1959) American-British novelist and screenwriter, a founder of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. A remarkable, lengthy T.L.S., Raymond Chandler, three pages (separate leaves), 4to, La Jolla, California, 15th January 1951, to the Editor of The Author, the quarterly journal of The Society of Authors. Chandler intelligently addresses the subject of the Hollywood blacklist of professional individuals believed to have been Communists or sympathisers and writes, in part, 'The Statement by Mr. Woodrow Wyatt M.P. on the subject of the Hollywood Ten seemed to me at the time something less than crystal clear on the very important point that Communism was not an issue in the trial and conviction of these men…..but what troubles me is that your correspondents seem to take it for granted that the Hollywood Ten were convicted of an offense with which they were not charged, with which they could not be charged, because it was not a crime. They were indicted for contempt of a lawfully-constituted Congressional Committee, in that before a hearing of that Committee they in effect, although not categorically, refused to state whether they were or ever had been members of the Communist Party. They were charged with, tried for, and convicted of nothing else. It is quite true that after each of these recalcitrant witnesses was ejected from the witness chair on the orders of the Chairman of the Committee, certain evidence was read into the record which purported to show that the Ten had at one time been card-carrying Communists. This evidence has not been subjected to the kind of scrutiny it would get in a court of law. It may be erroneous, it may even be faked. We are at liberty to disregard it. We should disregard it. The right of cross examination is fundamental to our legal system. A Congressional Committee is not a court of law and is not compelled to give that right. Therefore the evidence it adduces can be no more than presumptive. Certain of the Ten may have been regular party line Communists at the time of the hearings. Certain others may have been Communists in the past and have ceased to be Communists. So why did they not say so? That of course is the heart of the matter. The simple fact is that they were afraid to answer categorically. So they tried to make speeches, to read prepared statements, to talk about the films they had worked on, to declare that they were ready and willing and even anxious to answer the questions of the Committee, if allowed to do so in their own way. But they would not say yes or no, and they would not refuse to say yes or no. In the public mind there was only one conclusion, which was that they could have made only one answer…..I think they had very bad legal advice, and that they made a very bad mistake at a very bad time and in a very bad place. But we should do them the justice of remembering that they were in a very tough spot. Not only were they "hostile witnesses" before a Committee which was investigating, or purporting to investigate, "subversive influences" in Hollywood, but they were on trial before the motion picture industry which gave them their livelihood. If they admitted to being or to having once been Communists, then they convicted the motion picture industry of employing Communists and ex-Communists to write and direct its pictures. And this was exactly the sort of thing that the Committee was after……at least insofar as its Chairman controlled it (an ignorant mountebank who afterwards went to jail as a crook, in case you forget)…..does anyone really suppose that the crucifixion of ten writers and directors chosen at random from a long list was a blow struck in the defense of this Republic against Stalinism? What then could the Hollywood Ten have done? You may say that they could have denied being Communists or ex-Communists and let the Committee prove it against them…..This is not an age of reason or tolerance. And Hollywood would have discarded them in any case, because they would have been smeared, and Hollywood would be smeared through them. I think they had only one chance, and they lacked the courage or the understanding to take it. It is easy to be wise now, but at the same time I personally felt exactly the same: they could have refused categorically, and not by evasion, to answer the Committee's questions on the ground that the Committee had no legal right to force them to answer such questions. They might still have lost - - granted; but they would have stated a case on which the courts had not then given a decision…..More important to them personally, they would have taken some of the heat off Hollywood…..In a certain grim sense let us admit that the Hollywood Ten got what was coming to them. In a critical moment they lacked the courage to stand up and be counted. Would the rest of us, faced with the same problem, have a clearer courage? Let us have a little justice. These ten men were not convicted of being Communists; they were convicted, essentially, of not being heroes. But in Hollywood you don't learn to be a hero. You learn to be expedient - - or you get the hell out. And the dilemma of the expedient man is that he can never be sure whose throat he is cutting. It may be his own'. A lucid letter written in the wake of one of the most controversial moments in the history of Hollywood, resulting in the imprisonment of the Hollywood Ten, including Dalton Trumbo and Edward Dmytryk, who defied the House Un-American Activities Committee. With a few annotations etc. made in preparation for publication. VG
AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, MANUSCRIPTS & HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS AUCTION
Auktionsdatum
Lose: 650
Lose: 650
Ort der Versteigerung
El Real del Campanario
num.12 Bajo B
Estepona
Malaga
29688
Spain
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Day One - Lots 1 - 650
Day Two - Lots 651- 1300
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