In an immensely alive and pointed memoir by a writer who was himself blacklisted during what Lillian Hellman so aptly called "scoundrel time, " Bernstein recounts his passage from idealist to scapegoat. Chronicling his writing careers in Hollywood and then television, Bernstein tells of the blacklisting for communism which brought ostracism, FBI surveillance, and a search for "fronts" to take credit for his work. of photos.