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3486 COMMUNISM IN HOLLYWOOD MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY and brochures on what was happening in the theater and what was happening in literature all over Europe. Mr. Tavenner. "Was the name International Literature the name of the publication that you said you were unable to recall ? Mr. Odets. I think so. I think it was printed around newspaper style. Mr. Tavenner. I show you a newspaper copy of several pages from the September 1935 issue of International Literature. You will note that this is the official organ of the International Union of Revolu- tionary Writers. On page 3 appears a letter from you. Do you recall the occasion? Mr. Odets. No. I have seen this letter when I was here last. Mr. Tavenner. At the time you were here, we did not have available sufficient identification of that letter. The letter is not dated, as you see, but it was issued in the September—it does appear in the Septem- ber 1935 issue of that. Mr. Odets. There is no doubt I wrote this letter, I recognize the style. Mr. Tavenner. I want to read to you the first paragraph of your letter: Many thanks for your comradely letter from the Soviet Union. It gave me a great thrill to have your letter. In fact, I walked around the city showing it to friends all day, and took it backstage to our working actor comrades of the Group Theater and read it to the group in the dressing room. Your letter indicates that you were very much impressed with re- ceiving a letter from the International Literature. Mr. Odets. Yes, I was. Mr. Tavenner. You were a member of the Communist Party at that time, were you not? Mr. Odets. I would say roughly or approximately 1935, late in 1935. Mr. Tavenner. Did you have any other connection or association with the International Union of Revolutionary Writers? Mr. Odets. I would say, to the best of my memory, that if I wrote one or two letters like that in my lifetime it would be a great deal, and the rest of my connection would be to receive their literature. Mr. Tavenner. I show you a photostatic copy of an article that appeared in the January 18, 1935, issue of the Daily Worker. This article is a call for a Congress of American Revolutionary Writers, on May 1. I want to read several paragraphs from the article. The opening paragraph is: The capitalist system crumbles so rapidly before our eyes that whereas 10 years ago scarcely more than a handful of writers were sufficiently farsighted and courageous to take a stand for proletarian revolution, today hundreds of poets, novelists, dramatists, critics, short-story writers, and journalists recognize the necessity of personally helping to accelerate the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of a workers' government. Further along in the article we find the following: We propose, therefore, that a congress of American Revolutionary Writers be held in New York City on May 1, 1935, that to this congress shall be invited all writers who have achieved some standing in their respective fields, who have clearly indicated their sympathy to the revolutionary cause, who do not need to be convinced of the decay of capitalism, of the inevitability of the revolu- tion.