Although Ted Allan has been a successful writer of stories and of plays for all media, as well as a successful actor, he is best known for two of his less representative works. To the general public he is recognized as the author of the screenplay for Lies My Father Told Me, one of the few Canadian feature films which has been successful internationally, both commercially and critically. To many Canadians, to the Chinese, and to the Left of all countries, he is known for his collaborative biography of the Canadian socialist physician Norman Bethune.

Ted Allan was born Alan Herman, the son of Harry and Annie Elias Herman, in Montreal. His youth in the Jewish ghetto of Montreal, with vestiges of Eastern Europe surrounding him, was apparently a close approximation of that presented in Lies My Father Told Me . The socialist fervor of that time and place...