Books with author Howard Fast

April Morning is a novel by Howard Fast depicting the Battle of Lexington and Concord from the perspective of a fictional teenager, Adam Cooper. It takes place in the 27-hour period from April 18, 1775 to the aftermath of the battle. During that stretch, Adam comes of age and resolves his difficulties with his intellectually demanding father. While the novel was not originally written as a young adult novel, it has increasingly been assigned in middle school English and social studies classes, due to the age of the protagonist and Fast’s meticulous efforts to recreate the texture of daily life in colonial America and the political currents on the eve of the American Revolution. In 1987 a film version was made for television starring Chad Lowe as Adam and Tommy Lee Jones as his father. It is often shown in classes where the book is read. Legendary director John Ford had intended to follow up his film 7 Women with a film version of April Morning, but soon became too sick and had to pull out of the project. Had Ford had his way, he would have had his frequent collaborator John Wayne play Adam Cooper's father. Ford once said that out of all the film projects he was not able to do for one reason or another, the only one he really regretted not doing was April Morning, because it could have been his early gift to America's bicentennial.