Editing Howard Fast (section)

==Personal life and death==
Fast married his first wife, Bette Cohen, on June 6, 1937. Their children were Jonathan and Rachel. Bette died in 1994. During the marriage, Fast had a relationship in the 1950s with Isabel (Dowden) Johnson, former wife of [[Lester Cole]] and later wife to [[Alger Hiss]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Remnick|first=David|date=1986-10-12|title=Alger Hiss Goes Ungently Into That Good Night|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1986/10/12/alger-hiss-goes-ungently-into-that-good-night/532c52c0-c52d-41d3-bce3-5a72df65ed32/|access-date=2022-02-01|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Sorin|first=Gerald|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nj-bWkvg9kIC&dq=Isabel++&pg=PA462|title=Howard Fast: Life and Literature in the Left Lane|date=2012-11-05|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-00732-2|language=en}}</ref> In 1999, he married Mercedes O'Connor, who survived him. Mercedes brought three sons to the marriage. 

Fast's son [[Jonathan Fast]], himself a novelist, was married to novelist [[Erica Jong]]; their daughter is the author [[Molly Jong-Fast]]. The writer [[Julius Fast]] was his younger brother.

Fast died in his home in [[Greenwich, Connecticut|Old Greenwich]], [[Connecticut]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Rothstein|first=Mervyn|date=2003-03-13|title=Howard Fast, 88, Best-Selling Novelist, Dies|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/13/arts/howard-fast-88-best-selling-novelist-dies.html|access-date=2022-02-14|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>