Lillian Hellman (1905–1984)
Author of Pentimento
About the Author
Playwright Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans on June 20, in 1905. After studying at New York and Columbia Universities, Hellman worked in publishing and as a book reviewer and play-reader. In 1934, Hellman had her first success as a playwright with The Children's Hour. In the play, Hellman show more mixed social, political, and moral issues along with more personal ones. Among some of Hellman's other successful plays are The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine, The Searching Wind, and Toys in the Attic. Hellman was also a screenwriter who wrote many film scripts and adapted the works of other authors for film and the stage. Hellman's memoirs include An Unfinished Woman and Pentimento. For more than 30 years Hellman had a relationship with "hard-boiled" detective writer Dashiell Hammett. She lived with him until his death in 1961, and shared his commitment to radical political causes. Hellman's appearance before Senator Joseph McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952 resulted in her being blacklisted in Hollywood. Her book, Scoundrel Time, explores her experiences during the McCarthy era. Nearly blind and confined to a wheelchair, Lillian Hellman died of cardiac arrest in 1984. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Lillian Hellman uncredited foto by Nutrias
Series
Works by Lillian Hellman
The Little Foxes & Another Part of the Forest (Penguin plays & screenplays) (1973) 81 copies, 1 review
Pentimento: e Il tempo dei furfanti 12 copies
Three American Plays 3 copies
Plays 2 copies
Four Modern American Plays 2 copies
Hellman, Lillian Archive 1 copy
Skakavci 1 copy
Lillian Hellman Plays 1 copy
Associated Works
The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels (1943) — Introduction — 1,045 copies, 16 reviews
This is My Best: American Greatest Living Authors Present and Give Their Reasons Why (1942) — Contributor — 215 copies
Writing Women's Lives: An Anthology of Autobiographical Narratives by Twentieth-Century American Women Writers (1994) — Contributor — 128 copies, 3 reviews
In Her Own Words: Women's Memoirs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States (1999) — Contributor — 28 copies
Critics' Choice: New York Drama Critics' Circle Prize Plays, 1935-1955 (1980) — Contributor — 26 copies
About Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, Poetry, and Essays (1973) — Contributor — 25 copies
The Dain Curse / The Thin Man / The Glass Key / Red Harvest / The Maltese Falcon / Selected Stories (1952) — Editor — 15 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hellman, Lillian
- Legal name
- Hellman, Lillian Florence
- Birthdate
- 1905-06-20
- Date of death
- 1984-06-30
- Gender
- female
- Education
- New York University
Columbia University - Occupations
- playwright
screenwriter
memoirist - Organizations
- League of American Writers
Screen Writers Guild - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (1962)
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1960)
National Institute of Arts and Letters (1946) - Relationships
- Hammett, Dashiell (partner)
- Short biography
- Lillian Hellman was a popular playwright whose most successful works were created between the 1930s and the 1960s. She also published several bestselling volumes of memoirs. Several of her plays were made into films. Ms. Hellman was equally famous for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, and for her long romantic relationship with Dashiell Hammett.
She also conducted a lengthy feud with writer Mary McCarthy. - Cause of death
- cardiac arrest
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
- Places of residence
- New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
New York, New York, USA
Hollywood, California, USA
Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA - Place of death
- Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
This was a re-read. I knew I liked the book but couldn't remember much about it except that Dashiell Hammett had been persecuted by Joe McCarthy. Now I know why I liked it. It's a gem. It presents numerous people from Hellman's life -- well drawn but with details missing, as they would be in normal life; we never know everything about another person. Hellman doesn't fill in those gaps. She lets us see for ourselves and judge for ourselves. There are hilarious parts (the condoms!) and show more wrenching ones (Julia) and intriguing and fascinating parts. This is a wonderful book. show less
Lillian Hellman would be kinda overrated were it not for Childrens Hour and The little foxes. For every interesting or provocative thought, there's hyere a ton of symbolic cabbage and sticky milieu to wade through. Unmarried sisters living in New Orleans welcome home their ne'er-do-well brother, who arrives bearing gifts and ill-gotten cash. It's an overheated piece of would be-Gothic melodrama, given a luxurious sheen , and the opening scenes are so confusing that patience and interest are show more both enormously tried. show less
The past haunts the couples and former couples of this small Southern town. Like real life, everyone is unlikable, but unlike real life everyone confronts their self delusions.
As a collection of plays, this is a work worth looking into. Watch on the Rhine and Children's Hour stand above the rest, I feel, but all of them are good powerful works. Hellman's tone is constant throughout--she deals with serious issues, stereotypes and prejudices, familial promises, feelings and compromises. The characters here come across as real, though are in some cases perhaps a bit dated--but, in the end, this is necessary for her themes to come across as they often deal with the show more passage of time in America. I think Watch on the Rhine especially is effective even on the page, but I'd say all these are worth reading even for a contemporary reader, particularly one who wants to understand more about where we've come from, and for one who can appreciate the most subtle of dramas, and the most subtle tragedy at times as well. show less
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 50
- Also by
- 27
- Members
- 4,374
- Popularity
- #5,732
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 68
- ISBNs
- 160
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 14
