Harold Livingston
USA
Biography
Harold Livingston (1925–2022) was a novelist, Hollywood screenwriter, and World War II U.S. Army Air Forces veteran who flew for the Israel Air Transport Command during the 1948 War of Independence, helping smuggle aircraft and munitions to the embattled Jewish state.
After the war he returned to California and launched a writing career: his 1954 novel The Coasts of the Earth, drawn in part from his service in Israel, won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. He went on to write six more books and the screenplay for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and later appeared as himself in the documentary A Wing and a Prayer (2015), Boaz Dvir’s film about Al Schwimmer’s 1948 airlift.
Read his obituary — “Hollywood Writer Fought for U.S. and Israel,” by Tom Tugend for JTA →
Works
- The Coasts of the Earth (1954) — novel; winner of the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award.
- Six further books over his writing career.
- Screenplay for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).
- Appears as himself in the documentary A Wing and a Prayer (2015, dir. Boaz Dvir), about Al Schwimmer’s 1948 airlift — available to stream, see Further Reading → Films to Watch.
- Obituary: “Hollywood Writer Fought for U.S. and Israel,” by Tom Tugend for JTA (2022).
See Further Reading — all works by our volunteers →
Sources: Harold Livingston obituary