In 1941, Lawson ordered Budd Schulberg to make changes to his novel "What Makes Sammy Run?" to better fit the Communist message; Schulberg refused and quit the American Communist Party in protest. Lawson organized and led a critical attack in 1946 on Albert Maltz after he published an article, "What Shall We Ask of Writers", in "The New Masses", challenging the didacticism of the American Communist Party's censorship of writers. Surprised by the ferocity of attack from his fellow writers, including Lawson, Howard Fast, Alvah Bessie, Ring Lardner, Jr., Samuel Sillen, and others, Maltz publicly recanted.