John Sanford
John B. Sanford, born Julian Lawrence Shapiro (May 31, 1904 – March 5, 2003), was a screenwriter and author who wrote 24 books. The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature describes him as, “Perhaps the most outstanding neglected novelist.”[1] A one-time member of the Communist Party, after he and his wife Marguerite Roberts refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee, they were blacklisted and unable to work in Hollywood for nearly a decade.
Sanford wrote half of his books after he was 80. He published a 5-volume autobiography, for which he received a PEN/Faulkner Award and the Los Angeles Times Lifetime Achievement Award. He left three unpublished novels and was writing up until a month before his death at 98.
Books by John Sanford
The People From Heaven
John Sanford’s most ambitious and searing novel, completes his Warrensburg Trilogy, digging beneath the bucolic surface of a small-town to expose the hatred at its core.
"A sacred book, majestic in its rebukes of those who violate the breath and origin of humanity while professing faith and going through the motions of holiness." Carl Sandburg
The Old Man's Place
A trio of vicious World War One veterans descend on a farm in the Adirondack mountains. The arrival of a mail-order bride ignites a tinderbox of resentment, lust, and betrayal among the men that explodes in brutal depravity, bloody violence and shocking death. A literary, crime fiction classic.
Make My Bed in Hell
On a freezing night, a lone farmer in the Adriondacks finds a starving man in his barn...what unfolds between the two men, past and present, is a brisk, gritty depiction of crime and punishment. A literary, crime fiction classic, out of print for 60 years.
Featured Book
The Old Man’s Place By John Sanford
A trio of vicious World War One veterans descend on a farm in the Adirondack mountains. The arrival of a mail-order bride ignites a tinderbox of resentment, lust, and betrayal among the men that explodes in brutal depravity, bloody violence and shocking death. A literary, crime fiction classic.
