Dalton Trumbo

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered—not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives...This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome...but so is war.

Dalton Trumbo’s posthumously published work, this novel tells the story of an old unrepentant Nazi official named Grieben. Former chief of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the protagonist is motivated by a boundless desire for power & by what seems to be an inability to receive love. In autobiographical form, Grieben ensnares us in the sadism of his youth, the cruelty of his relationship with a woman who was half-Jewish & the indescribable horror of the Holocaust.

Wealthy merchant John Abbott roused from a dreamless slumber and recorded in his journal: August 6, 1926, “Had a good day and night. Nothing happened. What more could I ask?”From this contented beginning in Eclipse, events begin to cast lengthening shadows over Abbott’s success in Shale City, Colorado. Soon the desperate glare of the Great Depression would reveal the true nature of his relationships.

The Time of the Toad is a searing classic about political repression in America by the legendary screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. In the early 1940s, Trumbo and many other artists, writers, and intellectuals who shared anti-war sympathies and anti-fascist ideals were active members of the American communist party, but their ideology did not go unnoticed. In 1947, during the era of Joseph McCarthy and the “Red Scare” in America, he and nine other Hollywood screenwriters (the “Hollywood Ten”), were called to testify before the U.S. government’s House Committee on Un-American Activities Commission. Trumbo and others who refused to cooperate were charged with contempt; he later served nearly a year in prison and was blacklisted as a screenwriter for the following decade. The Time of the Toad explores both the contempt citations and the greater philosophical issues they raised for the nation. The toad of the title is in reference to an 1890s article by Émile Zola in which the animal in question serves as a rhetorical metaphor for how to survive living in a repressive socio-political environment. Zola suggested that you have to swallow a live toad each day to immunize yourself to the moral indifference of the society around you. The analogy was as apt during Trumbo’s time in the mid-twentieth century, and unfortunately is still relevant and meaningful. The Time of the Toad remains a powerful testament to the courage of Trumbo’s principled stand, and a timeless treatise on the value of free speech and thought. Readers interested in related titles from Dalton Trumbo will also want to Eclipse ( 1635610982), Eclipse ( 1635610982), Eclipse ( 1635610982 ).

Letters of Dalton Trumbo, good condion. Ex-library book.

In a small town, the undertaker and the doctor plan to steal the body of the town's wealthiest citizen. That gentleman, a crook, has just passed out of the picture and the undertaker, who has led a quiet and honest life to date, sees no reason why he should not get a well paying job. So the undertaker and doctor enter the home of the deceased and proceed to take his body back to the shop. The undertaker and his friend picture a rosy future until the corpse comes to life and regains consciousness. The old gentleman is left on the sofa in the undertaker's office, where he proceeds to reveal the fact that he will die penniless, leaving his affairs in such condition as to make legal trouble for his successors. The undertaker, who has bought an option on the only bronze casket west of New York, sees himself stuck for a goodly sum, and is not unwilling to allow the job of attending to the deceased financier (he has since actually died) to go to a rival. When he is on the point of unloading the casket on his rival, he gets a temporary case of conscience and agrees to sell the casket for what he paid for it. His rival evidently thinks he is deceiving him when he reports that the millionaire has died penniless. So he hangs up the phone with the parting shot: "It's your funeral!" A pleasant romantic interest is sustained by the undertaker's daughter and a young dancer, who have become engaged and plan to carve out a career for themselves as professionals."

From the jacket flap of the first edition:This, the sad story of Henry Hogg, a humble sign-painter who rose to alphabetical eminence in the washington of our day {1935/6}, is perhaps the one genuinely and intentionally funny book that the New Deal has inspired. No matter what your politics may be, if you have a sense of humor you will enjoy this uproarious record of Hogg's spectacular and fantastic career.

1956, paperback edition, California Emergency Defense Committee, Los Angeles, Ca. 44 pages. A stapled paperback booklet. Written by the famous screenwriter and novelist.

This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection

Scarce first publication of this essay by the blacklisted author of Johnny Got His Gun.

Excerpt from The Screen WriterIn response to many queries re garding the federal income taxes on the sale of motion picture rights of material other than that written directly for the screen, Morris E. Cohn submits a short abstract of several court decisions.