I thought it would let up, but it became a dogfight and I was the bone of contention. There were many phone calls, “unsigned” and hateful. I changed my phone number. When I began to move among people again, I found I was notorious, an “informer,” a “squealer,” a “rat.” I’d become the star villain for “progressives”; just as they’d expected me to be the staunchest defender of their position, they now labeled me the most treacherous of traitors. Others who’d done what I did, perhaps because less was expected of them, were not attacked as I was—not Burl Ives, not Jerry Robbins, not even Budd Schulberg. What made people especially furious with me was that I’d bought space in The New York Times for a statement (written by Molly) that urged others in my position to do what I’d done. Very soon I heard of meetings organized by the Communist Party (“Called by all Right-Thinking people”) to isolate me for attack. I’d become the primary target.