Howard Fast Books In Order

Publication Order of The Crossing Books

Publication Order of Lavette Family Books

Publication Order of Masao Masuto Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Art of the Story Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Howard Fast was one of the popular American author and television write, who was famous for writing his books based on the historical fiction genre. He was born on November 11, 1914, and died on March 12, 2003. Author Fast sometimes uses the pen names Walter Ericson and E.V. Cunningham for writing some of his novels. He was born in the New York City to his parents named Barney Fast and Ida Fast. His father was a actually a Ukranian immigrant who had to shorten his name from Fastovsky to Fast after arriving in America, while his mother was an immigrant from England. After the death of author Fast’s mother in the year 1923, his younger brother went to stay with his relatives and his father remained mainly unemployed. Therefore, he and his elder brother had to earn their livelihood by selling newspapers. Quite often, author Fast gives the credit of his voracious reading to his part time job at the Public Library in New York. Since a very young age, he started writing by getting inspired by the things that he used to read at the library. He used to spend most of time by riding railroads and hitchhiking in and around the nation for finding different jobs. At the same time around, he finished the writing part of his first book titled Two Valleys. It was published in the year 1933 when author Fast was just 18 years old.

The first written work of his which went on to become extremely popular is called as Citizen Tom Paine, which was a fictional description of the life of Thomas Paine. At that time, Fast seemed to be largely interested in the American history. Consequently, he went on to write the book titled ‘The Last Frontier’, which was based on the Cheyennes Indians’ try of returning to their homeland. This novel also became an inspiration for making the film called Cheyenne Autumn in the year 1964. Another historical novel that author Fast wrote at that time was titled as ‘Freedom Road’, which was based on the lives of the former slaves during the time of Reconstruction period. Seeing that the novel was based on a real incident, a production company decided to develop into a movie starring Muhammad Ali in the year 1979. In this movie, Ali played a rare role of Gideon Jackson, who was an ex-slave in Virginia during the time of the 1870s, who went on to get elected as a US Senate in the capital city of Washington, D.C.

In the book, Freedom Road as well as in the film adaptation, author Fast has described how Gideon Jackson battled along with other slaves and sharecroppers for keeping their land. During the time of the Second World War, Fast used to work with the War Office Information in America and write for the Voice of America. Later, he entered into politics. After some time in his career, he wrote his most popular work, Spartacus. But, no publishing company was agreeing to publish it, saying that it will not well in the market. Therefore, author Fast decided to publish on his own. With the success of this novel, he was able to further increase his popularity as an author. Author Fast married twice in his lifetime. First, he married Bette Cohen in the year 1937, giving birth to a son and a daughter. After the death of Bette in the year 1999, he went on to marry Mercedes O’Connor. Author Howard Fast died in the city of Old Greenwich, Connecticut. His son Jonathan Fast, daughter-in-law Erica Jong, granddaughter Molly Jong-Fast, and brother Julius Fast, were all novelists.

One of the initial and most successful novel series written by author Howard Fast in entitled ‘Lavette Family’ series, which consists of 6 novels in total. All the books in this series were published between the years 1977 and 1997. This series describes the rise and fall of one of the immigrant families highly determined for making their in The United States. The lives of the generations of the Lavette family are described in this series. ‘The Immigrants’ is the first book in the series, which was published in the year 1977 and set in San Francisco, California, United States. The main characters described in this book include Mark Levy, Anthony Cassalla, Dan Lavette, May Ling, and Jean Sheldon. Author Fast has described the story in the book in the form of a tremendous and beautiful love story. He has very well described the tale of adventure, ambition, and passion set in the most romantic city of America, San Francisco. In the beginning, Dan Lavette is introduced as the son of a common Italian fisherman. He battles to save his life in the San Francisco earthquake and goes on to build a fortune for himself in the shipping industry. With the help of his hard work and marriage with the city’s wealthiest family’s daughter, Dan rose to success. But, he risks everything for a woman whom he finds very much beautiful. She also seems to be knowing the scandalous passion and secrets of Dan. Without the help of this book, author Fast has allowed the city of San Francisco come alive. He has very well described the lives of 3 immigrant families, Chinese, Irish, and Italian. The intertwining dreams of these families are carried on with the coming of age of America.

The next novel in the Lavette Family series was released under the title ‘Second Generation’. It was published by the iBooks publishing house in the year 1978. This novel too describes the life story of Dan Lavette. It actually sweeps through the dramatic change of history, beginning from the Depression years till the end of the Second World War. The main character in this book is actually Barbara Lavette, the daughter of Dan Lavette and his wife Jean. Scornful of the social world of her mother, and troubled by the difficulties of living a dual life, forces the bold and beautiful Barbara to run away and build her own life. But, she ends up in Europe and almost entangled in the web of the Nazi terror. After passing through different experiences of life, Barrbara ultimately begins to understand herself better. Author Howard Fast has developed the plot of this book with great compassion and empathy, which was very much appreciated by the readers. They enjoyed reading about the emotions and love of the characters and their unique description by author Fast.