Lester Cohen

Lester Cohen (August 17, 1901 – July 17, 1963) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and non-fiction author. He is best known for writing the novels *Sweepings* and *Coming Home*, and for the screenplay of *Of Human Bondage*.

Cohen authored nine published books, two or more unpublished works (including *The Fabulous World of Horace Liveright*, about the founder of Boni-Liveright Publishers and his circle, and *Fallen Nation*, an epic left unfinished at the time of his death); six full-length stage plays, numerous short plays and television scripts; poetry; articles and stories for periodicals; reviews and editorials for *Variety*; and many screenplays and treatments for motion pictures.

Cohen was a member of the Dreiser Committee, which visited the Kentucky coal fields in 1931 to document the labor struggles of Harlan County coal miners. John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and other notable American writers were also part of the committee and contributed to the written report produced by Dreiser.

Cohen was a member of the League of American Writers, an organization of communists and communist sympathizers active between 1935 and 1943. The exact duration of his membership and the depth of his commitment to communism remain uncertain.

Cohen represented the American League for a Free Palestine at the first United Nations Conference in San Francisco in 1945.

Cohen was a founding member of the Screen Writers’ Guild and a member of the Authors’ Guild of America from 1926 until his death in 1963. He had no political or religious affiliations.