Though he experienced success as a novelist and a screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) is best known as a member of a group he would have preferred never existed-the "Hollywood Ten." After refusing to cooperate during the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings in the late 1940s, Trumbo and nine other screenwriters and directors were sent to jail and later blacklisted in Hollywood.

Dalton Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado on December 5, 1905. His family moved to Grand Junction, Colorado when he was seven years old. As a boy, Trumbo was indifferent to all sports, and had no interest riding horses, a popular past time in his home state. His passions, reading and writing, were considered more intellectual. During his high school years, he secured a job as a cub reporter for the Grand Junction Sentinel, and covered everything from school and athletic news, to crime and obituaries.

Depression Years...