BESSIE

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Friday, May 22, 2009 at 05:14:11 :

San Rafael News Pointer
August 7-13, 1985

Alvah Bessie –
a talented writer who’ll be missed
by Win Murphy

Marin writer Alvah Bessie died Sunday July 21 at the age of 81 – still feisty, creative, still an active writer to the end. His voice and presence will be sorely missed.

Alvah Bessie’s life story would read like the many novel’s he wrote. It was full of adventure diversity, creativity, and enough action for a superb movie script.

Bessie was a native New Yorker. As many a would-be creative artist had done before him, he went to Paris, France, to hone his craft, and then to Vermont where he completed his first novel, Dwell in the Wilderness. In tandem with his writing, Bessie pursued many occupations. He was a newspaper critic on the Brooklyn Eagle (and helped form the American Newspaper Guild); he was a combat soldier, a PR man, magazine editor, nightclub stage manager, Hollywood screen writer, publisher’s consultant, and a host of other things.

Through it all, he was a writer/fighter.

In addition to his many books, Alvah Bessie gained notoriety when he went to Spain in the 30s to fight fascism as a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, a unit of the International Brigades that fought for the Spanish republic. His name was much in the news in 1947 when he was among the famed Hollywood ten – a group of directors and screenwriters who defied the House Un-American Activities Committee during their much-publicized hearings on alleged Communism in the movie industry.

Out of both of these ‘battles’ came superb books. Bessie’s book, Men in Battle, recounting his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, is considered “a classic.” Bessie’s wife, Sylviane, reports that Men in Battle has been assigned reading for years in many university history classes.

From Bessie’s years as a screenwriter and subsequent blacklisting by the film industry and a one-year jail sentence for contempt of Congress, two novels emerged – The un-Americans (published in 1957) and Inquisition in Eden (1965). Alvah Bessie had many a screenplay to his credit, including Objective Burma for which he was nominated for an Academy Award in 1945.

Alvah Bessie and his lovely wife, Sylviane – who speaks with a charming, meliflouous French accent – have lived in Terra Linda for many years. Alvah was a familiar sight at the post office and Scotty’s market, where he was known and liked and was frequently seen walking the neighborhood, often wearing a jaunty beret, lines of living on his interesting face. And always when you met him, he’d have a gripe or a laugh to share.

I first met Alvah about twenty years ago. At the time I was a producer-director at KQED and Alvah Bessie was invited as a guest on my interview program, Kaleidoscope. It was then we discovered we not only lived in the same community of Terra Linda – but right up the street from each other on Woodbine Drive! He was kind enough to invite my husband and me to dinner, where we met Sylviane – a warm, caring woman and a superb cook.

Through the years when I’d meet Alvah around these parts he’d tell me about his latest work, difficulties of getting his books promoted, haggles and hazards of writing. I remember when his novel, The Symbol, came out and was purchased by television for a TV movie. Having read and enjoyed the book (a loose parallel to the Marilyn Monroe story), I found the TV version was a disappointing mish-mash, as did Alvah. I frequently learned from Alvah of the up-hill struggles of writing.

But it was writing he loved, and he persisted. His novel, Bread and Stone was recently re-issued, and his filmmaker son, Daniel, has made it into a movie entitled Hard Traveling, which is awaiting distributions. Another novel, One For My Baby, was based on his nightclub experiences – he worked for seven years at Enrico Banducci’s Hungry in North Beach as a stage manager, lighting man and announcer. Like most successful writers, Bessie’s work emerged from his life experiences and thus rang true.

Even at age 81, Alvah Bessie was still working, still contributing. He was completing the editing of an anthology of writings on the Spanish Civil War just before his death.

Bessie’s wife, Sylviane, says this of her late, beloved husband: “When I was still a newcomer to American and read Readers’ Digest to expand my vocabulary, I never missed reading An Unforgettable Character. I think of my husband as unforgettable. From the mailman to the grocery clerks, to my co-workers and friends, everyone has cried upon learning of his death. He touched many – at times irritating some very much – but mostly he was a friend and a fighter for human rights.

“He would not want anyone to cry over his death. But as his wife and companion of twenty-two years, I grieve and cry and miss him. Do you hear me, Alvah?”