Abstract

In recent years Salt of the Earth has acquired a reputation as one of the finest American films ever made about workers' and women's liberation. Yet comparatively little is known about Herbert Biberman, the director and co-producer of the film and one of the most important radical intellectuals in Hollywood in the 1940s. For more than forty years, Biberman wrote plays, essays and screen treatments which addressed the political, moral and aesthetic questions of his time. An irrepressible crusader, Biberman argued for the creation of an egalitarian society, for the realization of the artistic potential of each individual, and for the unity of life and art.