John B. Sanford was born Julian Lawrence Shapiro in Harlem, New York in 1904 to Jewish parents; his father was a Russian immigrant and his mother a first-generation American. His mother died in 1914 when he was only 10, which would have a marked influence on his life.
A graduate of Lafayette College, Shapiro later studied law at Fordham University; after graduation he decided to follow the example of his childhood friend, Nathanael West, and concentrate on his writing.
In the summer of 1931, isolated in a log cabin in the Adirondacks, he finished his first novel, The Water Wheel. When Shapiro was close to publishing his second book, The Old Man's Place, West (born Weinstein), suggested he change his name to one less identifiably Jewish, for fear of anti-Semitism damaging book sales. Shapiro became Sanford, and in 1935 the success of The Old Man's Place allowed him to move to Hollywood to try his hand as a screenwriter.
In 1936, Sanford was hired by Paramount Pictures, where he met his future wife Marguerite Roberts, also a screenwriter. In the same year, he became involved in the Communist Party of the United States - Roberts became a member after meeting Sanford, but was to hand her card back in 1947. Nevertheless they were both called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where they refused to give their names, invoking the Fifth Amendment. Along with many other Hollywood professionals, both Sanford and Roberts were blacklisted between 1951 and 1962, which effectively ended their Hollywood careers.
