Good Night, and Good Luck. Directed by George Clooney. 2005. Burbank: Warner Bros. Entertainment, 2006, DVD.
Guilty by Suspicion. Directed by Irwin Winkler. 1991. Burbank: Warner Bros. Entertainment, 2004, DVD.
The McCarthy Years. Part of the Edward R. Murrow Collection, narrated by Walter Cronkite, produced by CBS News, 2005.
Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist. Directed by Alexandra Isles. 1998. Seattle: Encore Media Group, 1999, DVD.
Trumbo. Directed by Jay Roach. 2015. New York: Bleecker Street, 2016, DVD.
Acknowledgments
Sometimes it takes a village to write a good novel.
I am blessed to have the brilliance and imaginative talents of my daughter, Megan, and my son, Peter—professional creative artists themselves—to guide my thoughts, to push me in the themes and issues I’ll tackle, and to edit me when I falter. They add depth and humanity, pace and fluidity, and authenticity of character and dialogue to everything I write. Megan also waded through hundreds of newspaper clippings and photos at the Library of Congress to research this period’s historical facts. And Peter helped me keep the voice and sensibilities of male adolescent protagonists natural, the plot trim and taut. He also wrote Richard’s songs.
A former Washingtonian magazine colleague, Jay Sumner, edited the photo selection with her veteran eye, making it a wonderfully evocative set of images that Disney • Hyperion’s Maria Elias then designed into a captivating sequence. The insights and gentle prodding of my editor, Kieran Viola, honed the novel’s tone, character’s personalities, and point of view.
My journalism background influenced my choice to organize this novel into vignette-style chapters, each starting with actual news events of that month. Interviewing people who were young during the 1950s but remember well the fears and triumphs of the decade made the story so much more palpable.
Particular thanks go to: Ken Yalowitz, former ambassador to the Republic of Belarus and Georgia, and his wife, Judy. They generously shared their memories of Ken’s thirty-six years with the U.S. Foreign Service as well as the fearmongering that terrorized the State Department and permeated the nation throughout their childhoods. Ambassador Yalowitz was also kind enough to read the manuscript in its various stages, greatly improving its accuracy and its depiction of the pressures put on ordinary people by sweeping political demagoguery.
Ben Lamberton—who grew up in Washington, DC, and whose father represented individuals in contempt of Congress cases brought against them by Senator McCarthy’s committee—helped me really understand the anguish of the intelligentsia and artists targeted by the Red Scare. Terry Straub, former senior vice president of public policy and governmental affairs for United States Steel and special assistant for congressional affairs in the Carter White House, graciously read the manuscript as well, keeping me on track regarding political history and congressional procedures.
Without all these people’s largesse and talents, I could not have adequately condensed such a complicated and alarming time in our political history into a compelling portrait. I am grateful beyond words. If you find worth in these pages, please attribute it to the group effort.
Photo Credits
Chapter 1
Page 2 (top): Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Library of Congress; Page 2 (bottom): Rosenberg children leaving Sing Sing after visiting parents, © Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo; pages 4-5: Germans facing down Soviet tanks in Berlin, © dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo; Page 7 (top left): Dorothy Parker, Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo; Page 7 (top right): Upton Sinclair, Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr., unidentified artist, 1906, gelatin silver print, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Page 7 (center): 1954: A film still from the 1989 documentary Comic Book Confidential showing the burning of comic books, Image From Cinecom Pictures / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images; Page 7 (bottom left): Ernest Hemingway posing with a marlin, Havana Harbor, Cuba. July 1934, Ernest Hemingway Collection / John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston; Page 7 (bottom right): Albert Einstein, Library of Congress; page 8: Herblock cartoon—“You Read Books, Eh?,” a 1949 Herblock cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation.
Chapter 2
Page 26: A war-weary girl with her brother on her back trudges past a stalled M-26 tank, at Haengiu, Korea. July 9, 1951, U.S. Navy; Page 27 (top): A grief stricken American infantryman, whose friend has been killed in action, is comforted by another soldier. In the background a corpsman methodically fills out casualty tags, Haktong-ni area, Korea. August 28, 1950, National Archives; Page 27 (bottom): Korean War. A gun crew checks their equipment near the Kum River. July 15, 1950, Signal Corps / National Archives; pages 28–29: Map showing missile radius from Cuba, John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston.
Chapter 3
Page 48: McCarthy pointing finger, © Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo; page 50: Baker Bikini Test, U.S. Military.
Chapter 4
Page 71: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz together at a piano, Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo; Page 72 (top): An eager school boy gets his first experience in using War Ration Book Two, National Archives; Page 72 (bottom): Jackie and JFK wedding, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
Chapter 5
Page 87: Portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower, National Archives; Page 89 (top): First Lieutenant Milo J. Radulovich and his wife, Nancy, rejoice after learning that Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott had reversed a recommendation that he be discharged from the Air Force Reserve as a security risk, Nov. 24, 1953, in Dexter, Mich. Radulovich is a University of Michigan student. His case attracted national attention, AP Photo / Detroit News; Page 89 (bottom): Edward R. Murrow, Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo; Page 90 (top): Fahrenheit 451 book cover, a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury, World History Archive / Alamy Stock photo.
Chapter 6
Page 109: How Red Is The Little Red Schoolhouse art, public domain; Page 110 (top right): Portrait of Harry S. Truman, U.S. Army / Frank Gatteri / Courtesy of Harry S. Truman Library; Page 110 (bottom left): Portrait of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, National Archives.
Chapter 7
Page 126: Red Channels cover art, public domain; page 128: Portrait of Langston Hughes, © Everett Collection / Alamy Stock Photo.
Chapter 8
Page 145 (top): Photo of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo; Page 145 (bottom): Portrait of Ruby Dee, Library of Congress; page 146: Nautilus submarine, U.S. Navy.
Chapter 9
Page 164: Eisenhower / Nixon Campaign brochure, Richard Nixon Presidential Library; Page 166 (top): Image of Dr. Jonas Salk holding up two medical bottles, University of Pittsburgh; Page 166 (bottom): Image of nurse and two children with polio, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chapter 10
Page 183 (top): Annie Lee Moss, 48, was suspended from her Pentagon job in 1954 after she was accused of being a Communist Party member, Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo; Page 183 (bottom): Senator McCarthy talking to attorney Roy Cohn, Library of Congress; Page 184 (left): Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn from movie Roman Holiday 1953, directed by William Wyler, ScreenProd / Alamy Stock Photo; Page 184 (right): Portrait of author Arthur Miller, Eric Koch / Nationaal Archief / The Netherlands.
Chapter 11
Page 202: Herblock cartoon—“I have here in my hand,” a 1954 Herblock cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation; page 204: Photo of Walt Disney, © Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Chapter 12
Page 221 (top): School integration, Barnard School, Washington, DC, 1955, Library of Congress; Page 221 (bottom): Protest march against the segregation of U.S. schools, National Archives; page 223: A soldier in a trench during battle at Dien Bien Phu, May 7, 1954, Keystone Pictures USA / Alamy Stock Photo; page 224: Bill Haley and His Comets at the Guest Lodge, Oak Ridge, 1946, DOE Digital Archive.
Chapter 13
Page 246: Chi
ef Senate Counsel representing the United States Army and partner at Hale and Dorr, Joseph Welch (left) with United States Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin (right) at the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations’ McCarthy-Army hearings. June 9, 1954, U.S. Senate Historical Office; page 248: School kids hold a “duck and cover” practice drill and crawl under their desks, Library of Congress.
Afterword
Page 266: Herblock cartoon—“My next number will be—” a 1950 Herblock cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation.
Photo Credits
Page 286: House Pages carry a stretcher on the East Front of the Capitol. March 1, 1954, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives.
L. M. ELLIOTT (www.LMElliott.com) was a Washington-based journalist for almost twenty years, and twice a National Magazine Award finalist before becoming a novelist. She is the author of Under a War-Torn Sky—an NCSS/CBC Notable Book in Social Studies, Jefferson Cup Honor Book, one of Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, and winner of the Borders Original Voices Award—and its companions, A Troubled Peace (also an NCSS/CBC Notable) and Across a War-Tossed Sea (a Jefferson Cup Overfloweth title). Her other books include Annie, Between the States, a New York Times Young Adult E-Book Best Seller, an IRA Teacher’s Choice, and an NYPL Book for the Teen Age; Da Vinci’s Tiger; and Give Me Liberty.
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