Title: Frank Campenni Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1932-1977

Creator:

• Campenni, Frank, 1930-2000

Call Number: UWM Manuscript Collection 213

Quantity: 3.4 cubic ft. (9 boxes, including 4 audio cassettes)
Repository:

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives Department

Archival Location:

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

The collection consists of materials of a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) English professor's research on Howard Fast, a prolific communist author. The significant areas of the collection focus on Howard Fast's political involvement with the Communist Party (1943-1956) and the anti-fascist movement (1945-1950). The collection contains photocopies of correspondence, copies of literary manuscripts (typescripts), newspaper clippings, oral history interviews, poems, political flyers and pamphlets, and a subpoena to appear before the United States Senate. Included is correspondence with Bette Fast, Steve Nelson, Albert Maltz, Morton Sobell, and various literary publishers.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-mil-uwmmss0213

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Frank Campenni

Frank Campenni was an English professor at UWM for thirty-six years, 1956-1992. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1971.

Howard Fast

Howard Fast was a prolific author of historical novels, biographies, popular histories, children's stories, film scripts, plays, detective fiction, and science fiction. Fast also wrote under the pseudonym E. V. Cunningham. In the 1940s, and again in the 1970s and 1980s, he achieved best-seller status with novels explicitly promoting left-wing ideas.

The son of Ukrainian immigrants, Barney and Ida Miller Fast, Fast attended George Washington High School in New York City and graduated in 1931 at the age of sixteen. In 1932, Fast published his first work, Two Villages, a romantic novel. Within a few years, he had written more than half a dozen historical novels about the American Revolutionary War period, including Conceived in Liberty (1939), The Last Frontier (1941), The Unvanquished (1942), and Citizen Tom Paine (1943).

He married his wife Bette in 1937, and in 1943 joined the American Communist Party. In 1950 the House of the Un-American Activities Committees (HUAC) ordered Fast to provide names of fellow members of the American Communist Party. Fast refused, citing his 1st Amendment right, and was subsequently sentenced to three months in prison. While in prison he wrote his most famous novel, Spartacus (1953), about a slave revolt in ancient Rome. Blacklisted upon his release, he established his own publishing company, the Blue Heron Press. In 1952 he ran for Congress on the American Labor Party ticket, and in 1954 he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize.

Fast left the Communist Party in 1956, disillusioned by the Soviet Union's own stunning revelations of Stalin's terror and by the spread of anti-Semitism there. In conjunction with leaving the Party he wrote a book about his political experience, The Naked God (1957). In 1957 he moved to Hollywood to begin a career as a scenarist, and in 1960 Spartacus was made into a successful movie starring Kirk Douglas.

During his lifetime Fast published more than forty books under his own name and twenty as E.V. Cunningham. Howard Fast died in Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 12, 2003.

The collection documents Frank Campenni's research concerning Howard Fast's life, literary work, and his involvement with and subsequent departure from the Communist Party.

Scope and content notes of each series are included in the contents list.

The collection is arranged into two series:

1. Collection on Howard Fast, 1932-1977
2. Dissertation Materials, 1937-1977

Materials in series 1 and 2 are organized alphabetically by folder title, then chronologically. The oral history interviews are organized chronologically. The interviews were recorded on audio reel and cassette tapes.

Citation Guide for Primary Sources

• Leon Kramer Papers. UWM Manuscript Collection 183.

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law.

For some interviews, there exist both original and access copies. As a preservation measure, researchers must use the access copies, when they exist, rather than the originals.

Use Restrictions

The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

Contact the University of Pennsylvania Library, the designated repository of Howard Fast's personal and literary papers, for information concerning copyright status of materials authored by Fast.

Acquisition Information

Jeanine Campenni donated the materials that comprise series 1 in November 2003 (accession 2003-040).

Processing Information

Karen Bjork processed the collection at the Archives from March to July 2004.

The oral history transcripts from the Fast, Howard, 1914-2003, Oral history interview, 1973 (UWM Manuscript Collection 55) were integrated into this collection.

Deaccession Information

In August 2006, at the request of Mimi Fast, Michael Doylen removed the following folders from the collection and transferred them to the University of Pennsylvania Library, the official repository of Howard Fast's papers: box 1, folders 23-25; and box 2, folders 2-6, 8, 14, 18-19.

	Series: 1. Collection on Howard Fast, 1932-1977 Scope and Content Note: This series contains materials collected by Frank Campenni documenting Howard Fast's political activism in the United States from the 1930s to the 1960s. Correspondence includes photocopies of letters and other written communications to and from family, personal, political, and publishers. Manuscripts include both published and unpublished non-fiction, plays, and short stories. None of the literary manuscripts are original documents; all are reproductions of typescripts. Newspaper clippings, which date from the 1930s through the 1960s, specifically focus on Howard Fast and his social and political involvements.
Box   1 Folder   1	Advertisements, Literature, 1950-1954, undated
Box   1 Folder   2	Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, 1945, 1948, undated
Box   1 Folder   3	Book Royalties, 1949-1970
Box   1 Folder   4	Copyright and Contracts, 1941-1957, undated
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   5	A-B, 1932-1935, 1941-1958
Box   1 Folder   6	Advertising and Publishing, Spartacus, 1951-1952, undated
Box   1 Folder   7	Awards and Honors, 1934-1938, 1945-1953
Box   1 Folder   8	C, 1934, 1951-1955
Box   1 Folder   9	Communist Party, Separation, 1957
Box   1 Folder   10	D, 1933-1939, 1945-1953, 1960
Box   1 Folder   11	Editors, Miscellaneous, 1948, 1953-1954
Box   1 Folder   12	Family, 1950, undated
Box   1 Folder   13	Family, Bette Fast, 1945, 1950, undated
Box   1 Folder   14	Fan Mail, 1945-1946, 1949-1953, undated
Box   1 Folder   15	F-G, 1945-1947, 1956-1959
Box   1 Folder   16	Film Studios, 1944-1948, 1961-1962
Box   1 Folder   17	J-K, 1935, 1942, 1952, 1956
Box   1 Folder   18	L, 1941-1946, 1950-1958, undated
Box   1 Folder   19	M-N, 1932, 1937-1952, 1957-1965
Box   1 Folder   20	P, 1945
Box   1 Folder   21	Passport Division, 1944-1955
	Personal
Box   1 Folder   22	Albert Maltz, 1944, 1946-1957
Box   1 Folder   26	Department of Justice, 1950
Box   2 Folder   1	Edward North, 1945-1946
	Political
Box   2 Folder   7	Congressional Candidate, 1952-1953, undated
Box   2 Folder   9	May Day, 1947, 1950-1957, undated
Box   2 Folder   10	McCarran Act, 1950-1952, 1955
Box   2 Folder   11	Miscellaneous, 1942, 1945, 1957
Box   2 Folder   12	Morton Sobell, 1954-1955, undated
Box   2 Folder   13	Peace Councils, 1949-1950, 1955-1956
Box   2 Folder   15	Rosenberg Case, 1952-1953, undated
Box   2 Folder   16	Steve Nelson, 1954-1955, undated
Box   2 Folder   17	Wallace for President, 1948, undated
	Publishers
Box   2 Folder   20	Crown Publishing, Inc., 1957-1958, 1964, 1969
Box   2 Folder   21	Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, Inc., 1936, 1939-1945, 1948
Box   2 Folder   22	Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1937-1939, 1948
Box   2 Folder   23	Hebrew Publishing Company, 1941, 1948-1949, 1952, 1957
Box   2 Folder   24	The John Day Company, 1934-1936
Box   3 Folder   1	John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, 1954, 1957-1958
Box   3 Folder   2	Literary Magazines, 1935-1948, 1951, 1956
Box   3 Folder   3	Little Brown and Company, 1944-1948
Box   3 Folder   4	Little Brown and Company, 1949-1953
Box   3 Folder   5	The MacMillian Company, 1935, 1951
Box   3 Folder   6	McIntosh and Otis, Inc., 1937-1938, 1940
Box   3 Folder   7	Negro Digest, 1944-1945
Box   3 Folder   8	Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1936, 1938-1941, 1949, 1956
Box   3 Folder   9	William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1968-1970
Box   3 Folder   10	R-S, 1935-1954, 1956-1964
Box   3 Folder   11	Universities, 1940, 1949, 1953-1958
Box   3 Folder   12	V-W, 1933-1942, 1950, 1957, 1961, undated
Box   3 Folder   13	Election Campaign, 1952
	Election Campaign
Box   3 Folder   14	Expenses, 1952
Box   3 Folder   15	Letterhead, undated
Box   3 Folder   16	Resolutions, 1948, undated
Box   3 Folder   17	Wallace for President, 1948
Box   3 Folder   18	Flyers and Pamphlets, Miscellaneous, 1952, undated
Box   3 Folder   19	Invitations, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic, 1951, 1954-1955, undated
	Manuscripts
Box   3 Folder   20	Annabelle, undated
Box   3 Folder   21	Benjamin Franklin Part III, 1973
Box   3 Folder   22	Busman's Holiday, undated
Box   3 Folder   23	Citizen Tom Paine, 1976
Box   3 Folder   24	The Clients, undated
Box   4 Folder   1	The Crossing, undated
Box   4 Folder   2	Farewell Dimitrios, undated
Box   4 Folder   3	The Hammer undated
Box   4 Folder   4	The Hessian, undated
Box   4 Folder   5	High Place, undated
Box   4 Folder   6	In the Beginning, undated
Box   4 Folder   7	The Judge, undated
Box   4 Folder   8-9	The Long Road to Glory, undated
Box   4 Folder   10	Naked God, undated
Box   5 Folder   1	The Novelist, undated
Box   5 Folder   2	The Puppet Show, undated
Box   5 Folder   3	Sam Houston Part I, 1975
Box   5 Folder   4	The Trap, 1977
Box   5 Folder   5	May Day, 1946-1953
Box   5 Folder   6	McCarran-Winter Bill, undated
Box   5 Folder   7	Miscellaneous Publications, 1937-1939, 1945-1952
Box   5 Folder   8-9	Miscellaneous Publications, 1954-1958, 1964, undated
Box   6 Folder   1	Musical Score, undated
Box   6 Folder   2	Mundt Bill, undated
Box   6 Folder   3	National Council of the Arts and Profession, 1948-1953, undated
Box   6 Folder   4	Nelson, Steve, 1952-1955, undated
Box   6 Folder   5	Newspaper Clippings, 1947-1948, 1950
Box   6 Folder   6	Newspaper Clippings, 1952-1954
Box   6 Folder   7	Newspaper Clippings, 1956-1957
Box   6 Folder   8	Newspaper Clippings, 1958-1959, 1967
	Newspaper Clippings
Box   6 Folder   9	Foreign Language, 1956-1957, undated
Box   6 Folder   10	New York Times, 1942-1960
	Reviews
Box   6 Folder   11	A-C, 1943-1947, 1964
Box   6 Folder   12	Cunningham, E.V., 1965-1967
Box   6 Folder   13	D-M, 1942-1956
Box   6 Folder   14	N-P, 1937-1942, 1951-1963
Box   6 Folder   15	R-T, 1941-1952, 1966
Box   6 Folder   16	U-V, 1960
Box   7 Folder   1	Personal and Family Papers, 1903, 1914, 1924, 1931-1936, undated
Box   7 Folder   2	Poems, 1953, undated
Box   7 Folder   3	Radio Broadcast, Agreements and Transcripts, 1948-1952
Box   7 Folder   4	Rosenberg, Ethel and Julius, 1953
Box   7 Folder   4a	Advertisement, "Must the Rosenbergs Die?," undated
Box   7 Folder   5	Sobell Committee, 1953-1954
Box   7 Folder   6	Subpoena, 1953
Box   7 Folder   7	World Council of Peace, 1955, undated
Box   7 Folder   8	World War II, 1942-1945
	Series: 2. Dissertation Materials, 1937-1977 Scope and Content Note: The bulk of this series consists of Frank Campenni's research for his Ph.D. dissertation, Citizen Howard Fast. These files include Campenni's oral history interviews with Fast. In the interviews, Fast discusses his involvement with the United States Communist Party, primarily during the 1940s and 1950s, his participation in various Party activities, and his relationship with prominent Communist Party Members, such as Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Eugene Dennis, and William Z. Foster.	⇧
Box   8 Folder   1	Biographical Notes, 1937, undated
Box   8 Folder   2	Correspondence, 1965, 1968-1969, 1974-1975
Box   8 Folder   3-6	Dissertation, Citizen Howard Fast Introduction-Bibliography, 1971
Box   8 Folder   7	Dissertation Outline, undated
	Manuscripts
Box   8 Folder   8-9	Biography, Chapters 1-8, undated
Box   8 Folder   10	Howard Fast: Phoenix from the Forties, undated
	Oral History
Box   9 Folder   4	Oral History Questions, undated
Box   8 Folder   11	1967 December 1 Transcript
Box   8 Folder   12	1968 April 12 Transcript
Box   8 Folder   13	1968 April 15 Transcript
Box   8 Folder   14	1968 April 16 Transcript
Box   8 Folder   15	1973 January 3 Transcript
Box   9 Audio   1-2	1973 March 13-14 Recording Physical Description: Audio cassette
Box   8 Folder   16	1973 March 13-14 Transcript
Box   9 Folder   1	1974 August 19 Transcript
Box   9 Audio   4	1977 Recording Physical Description: Audio cassette
Box   9 Folder   2	1977 Transcript
Box   9 Audio   3	Undated Recording Physical Description: Audio cassette
Box   9 Folder   3	Undated Transcript