Alfred Hayes (U.S. poet)

This article is about the 20th-century poet, novelist, and screenwriter. For the 19th-century English poet, see Alfred Hayes (UK poet).

Alfred Hayes (1911-1935). Courtesy Union Songs.

Alfred Hayes (18 April 1911 - 14 August 1985) was an English-born American poet, screenwriter, television writer, and novelist, who worked in both Italy and the United States. He is perhaps best known for his poem "Joe Hill" ("I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night…"), later set to music by Earl Robinson.

Life

Born in London, Hayes graduated from New York's City College (now part of City University of New York), worked briefly as a newspaper reporter, and began writing fiction and poetry in the 1930s. During World War II he served in Europe in the U.S. Army Special Services (the "morale division"). Afterwards, he stayed in Rome and became a screenwriter of Italian neorealist films. He adapted his own novel The Girl on the Via Flaminia into a play; in 1953 it was adapted into a French-language film, Un acte d'amour.

He was an uncredited co-writer of Vittorio De Sica's 1948 neorealist film Bicycle Thieves, for which he also wrote the English language subtitles.

Among his U.S. filmwriting credits are The Lusty Men (directed by Nicholas Ray. 1952) and the film adaptation of the Maxwell Anderson/Kurt Weill musical Lost in the Stars (1974). His credits as a television scriptwriter included scripts for American series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Nero Wolfe and Mannix.

Recognition

As a co-writer on Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946), he was nominated for an Academy Award; he received another Academy Award nomination for Teresa in 1951.

Publications

Poetry

• The Big Time (illustrated by Beatrice Tobias). New York: Howell, Soskin, 1944.
• Welcome to the Castle. New York: Harper, 1950.
• Just Before the Divorce: Poems. New York: Atheneum, 1968.

Novels

• All Thy Conquests. New York: Howell, Soskin, 1946; London: Gollancz, 1950.
• The Girl on the Via Flaminia. New York: Harper, 1949; London: Gollancz, 1949.
• Shadow of Heaven: A novel. New York: Howell, Soskin, 1947.
• In Love. New York: Harper, 1953; London: Gollancz, 1954
• My Face for the World to See. New York: Harper, 1958; London: Gollancz, 1958.
• The End of Me. New York: Atheneum, 1968; London: Gollancz, 1968.
• The Stockbroker, the Bitter Young Man, and the Beautiful Girl. London: Gollancz, 1973.

Short fiction

• The Temptations of Don Volpi. New York: Atheneum, 1960; London: Gollancz, 1960.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of American poets

External links

Poems

• "Joe Hill" at Union Songs
• Alfred Hayes 1911-1985 at the Poetry Foundation.

Audio / video

• Joe Hill, sung by Paul Robeson.
• Joe Hill, sung by Joan Baez.

About

• Alfred Hayes at the New York Review of Books
• Alfred Hayes at the Internet Movie Database
• Sandra Brennan, Alfred Hayes on The New York Times' Allmovie site.