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Son of pioneer movie producer Harry Rapf, Maurice Rapf grew up in Hollywood in that city's golden age. After moving from independent filmmaking to Warner Bros., in 1924 the senior Rapf joined Louis Mayer and became one of the founding members of MGM. Hence, movies were a huge influence in Maurice Rapf's early life. After graduating from college, Rapf worked as a screenwriter for major Hollywood studios, but, in 1947, he left Hollywood, never to work for a major studio again. On numerous occasions, he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee as an alleged communist, although he never made a public confession or denial. As a result he was blacklisted from the industry and forced to begin a new career in the East. He eventually became a movie critic and film studies professor. Maurice Rapf knows movies and the movie business as an insider, from first-hand experience, not from books. His autobiography is the story of one person's interaction with an evolving Hollywood. Rapf witnessed the historical progression of movie production: from silents to sound, from a fun-loving frontier community to a huge and fiercely competitive industry, from an apolitical never-never land to a community very much aware of—and nervous about—its social responsibility in a period of economic depression and in a period of world peace seriously threatened by the aggression of fascism. Of interest to students and teachers of film studies, of American history, and of American popular culture, as well as anyone who loves movies.

[Rapf] witnessed the rise and fall of the studio system, and delivers, in his own unique perspective, A Silents Majority Must Read., His personal recollections of the movies that were made at the time and the stars who inhabited that studio is informative and, indeed, priceless., ...the book is quite different from the most of the film industry biographies as the writer never rose to the top. I found the book to be extremely engrossing., ...Rapf has led a fascinating life and his life story makes for an interesting read.

Maurice Rapf was the Director Emeritus Film Studies and professor at Dartmouth College. He began at Dartmouth as an adjunct professor in 1966. In his long career, Maurice Rapf was a screenwriter, director, producer, film professor, and film critic.