Ted Allan

Alan Herman (January 26, 1916 – June 29, 1995), known professionally as Ted Allan, was a Canadian screenwriter, author, and poet, several of whose books were made into motion pictures. In 1975, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film for the film Lies My Father Told Me. Ted Allan was born in Montreal as Alan Herman. In 1934 he met and became friends with Norman Bethune. In February 1937 Allan joined Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades to fight against fascism in Spanish Civil War. At the direction of the Brigade, Ted worked as a reporter — he broadcast to America from Madrid — and worked again with Bethune. In 1939 he published his first novel, This Time a Better Earth, drawing on his experiences in the War. In 1952, Allan and Sydney Gordon published Bethune's biography, The Scalpel, The Sword. Allan battled for nearly 40 years to make a movie about the Canadian surgeon who became ...