Alfred Hayes (18 April 1911 – 14 August 1985) was a British-born

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

writer,

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

, and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

, who worked in Italy and the United States. His well-known poem about " Joe Hill" (''"I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night"'') was set to music by

Earl Robinson Earl Hawley Robinson (July 2, 1910 – July 20, 1991) was a composer, arranger and folk music singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Robinson is remembered for his music, including the cantata " Ballad for Americans" and songs such as " ...

, and performed by

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

and many other artists.

Life

Born in Whitechapel,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to a

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 ...

family that moved to the United States when he was three, Hayes graduated from New York's City College (now part of

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

), worked briefly as a newspaper reporter, and began writing fiction and poetry in the 1930s. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

he served in Europe in the U.S. Army Special Services (the "morale division"). Afterwards, he stayed in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and became a screenwriter of Italian neorealist films. His experience in Allied-occupied Rome served as the basis for his first two novels. ''All Thy Conquests'' (1947) is an episodic novel that follows several Americans and Italians over the course of a day in September 1944. The novel uses as its historical backdrop the massacre of the

Fosse Ardeatine The Ardeatine massacre, or Fosse Ardeatine massacre ( it, Eccidio delle Fosse Ardeatine), was a mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World War ...

and the botched trial of fascist

Pietro Caruso Pietro Caruso (10 November 1899 in Maddaloni – 22 September 1944 in Rome) was an Italian Fascist and head of the Rome police in 1944. Born in Campania in 1899, he fought in the Bersaglieri in the final months of World War I and participate ...

that devolved into a lynching, shocking the entire world. His second novel, ''The Girl on the Via Flaminia'' (1949), revisits the setting of Allied-occupied Rome, but focuses on a single, failed romance between the American officer, Robert, and the Italian, Lisa, whom he pays to play his wife. Hayes rewrote one of the episodes of ''All Thy Conquests'' as part of his work as a co-writer on

Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...

's '' Paisan'' ( 1946), which earned him an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination; he received another Academy Award nomination for '' Teresa'' ( 1951). He was an uncredited co-writer of Vittorio De Sica's neorealist film '' Bicycle Thieves'' ( 1948) for which he also wrote the English language subtitles. He adapted ''The Girl on the Via Flaminia'' into a Broadway play in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugosl ...

, and that same year it was adapted into a French-language film ''

Un acte d'amour The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizin ...

''. Among his U.S. filmwriting credits are '' The Lusty Men'' ( 1952, directed by Nicholas Ray) and the film adaptation of the Maxwell Anderson/

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

musical '' Lost in the Stars'' (

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

). His credits as a television scriptwriter included scripts for American series ''

Alfred Hitchcock Presents ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was r ...

'', '' The Twilight Zone'', ''

Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in ...

'' and '' Mannix''.

Bibliography

Poetry

*'' The Big Time'' (1944) *'' Welcome to the Castle'' (1950) *'' Just Before the Divorce'' (1968)

Novels

*''All Thy Conquests'' (1946) *''Shadow of Heaven'' (1947) *''The Girl on the Via Flaminia'' (1949) *''In Love'' (1953) *''My Face for the World to See'' (1958) *''The End of Me'' (1968) *''The Stockbroker, the Bitter Young Man, and the Beautiful Girl'' (1973)

Short stories

*'' The Temptations of Don Volpi'' (1960)

External links

* *Sandra Brennan
Alfred Hayes
on ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Allmovie site. Accessed on January 25, 2006.
Alfred Hayes Papers
at the University of Southern California

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Alfred 1911 births 1985 deaths People from Whitechapel British emigrants to the United States English Jews English male screenwriters English television writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets British male television writers 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century English male writers