Dalton Trumbo testifying before HUAC in 1947 (Library of Congress/World-Telegram photo)

Growing up in the 1970s, I knew nothing about the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities (to get a glimpse of this government committee’s impact, be sure to examine Google’s timeline on this organization from 1938 to 1975)–or more specifically I knew nothing about the Hollywood Blacklist. Fortunately, as I grew older, I learned a great deal about this recent dark portion of U.S. history. Sometimes when I hear some talk radio and much of the cable news channels (either side of the political spectrum), I wonder if we’re on the cusp of another age of blacklisting. I hope not.

Thanks to researcher and author Jeff Kisseloff, there is now a website that provides documents related to the days of blacklisting. I first became aware of Kisseloff’s blog, thanks to Mark Evanier who knew about it because of Aaron Barnhart. Kisseloff does not just provide links to blacklisting-related documentation, he covers a range of topics, as varied as the topics he addresses in the books he writes (a list of which can be found here).

What’s great about Kisseloff’s approach to blogging is, as an established non-fiction author, rather than rehashing old ground covered in his books with the blog, he gives a glimpse of life while he was researching and writing a certain book. (That’s not how he approaches every blog post, he covers a range of topics in unique ways) In the case of this post, Kisseloff juxtaposes the lives of a CBS TV executive, Frank Stanton, and Allan Sloane, a writer negatively impacted by the blacklist. Plus Kisseloff tosses in a link to the CBS loyalty oath.

Once I update the blogroll, likely over the holidays, I’ll be adding The Kisseloff Collection to it.