Sanford, born Julian Lawrence Shapiro (May 31, 1904 – March 5, 2003), was an American screenwriter and author who wrote 24 books.
The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature describes him as, "Perhaps the most outstanding neglected novelist." A one-time member of the Communist Party, after he and his wife Marguerite Roberts refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee, they were blacklisted and unable to work in Hollywood for nearly a decade.
Sanford wrote half of his books after he was 80.
He published a 5-volume autobiography, for which he received a PEN/Faulkner Award and the Los Angeles Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
He left three unpublished novels and was writing up until a month before his death at 98.