Howard Fast

Fast was born in New York City His mother Ida née Miller was a British Jewish immigrant and his father Barney Fast was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant who shortened his name from Fastovsky upon arrival in America When his mother died in 1923 and his father became unemployed Howards youngest brother Julius went to live with relatives while he and his older brother Jerome sold newspapers Howard credited his early voracious reading to a parttime job in the New York Public Library