In brief
Alfred Hayes (April 18, 1911 – August 14, 1985) was a British-born American screenwriter, novelist, and poet known for his collaborations on landmark Italian neorealist films, his hard-boiled Hollywood fiction, and his influential protest poetry from the 1930s labor movement.
Born in London in 1911 into a Jewish family, Hayes emigrated to New York City at age three and later attended City College of New York. In the 1930s, he worked as a newspaper reporter and emerged as a poet, with two poems set to music becoming enduring labor anthems: “Into the Streets May First” (with Aaron Copland) and “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” (with Earl Robinson). He briefly belonged to the Young Communist League before serving in the U.S. Army Special Services in Europe during World War II, experiences that deeply shaped his postwar writing.
Alfred Hayes was born on 18 April 1911 in Whitechapel, London, England, into a Jewish family. His father worked as a barber, was a trained violinist, and occasionally served as a bookie. The family made their home in London's East End, where Hayes spent his early childhood amid the bustling immigrant neighborhoods of the area.
