Lillian Hellman : an imperious life / Dorothy Gallagher
2014, First Edition. New Haven : Yale University Press. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Item #239915
ISBN: 0300164971
Physical description; vi, 171 pages ; 22 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references and index. Series; Jewish lives. Summary; Glamorous, talented, audacious-Lillian Hellman knew everyone, did everything, had been everywhere. By the age of twenty-nine she had written The Children's Hour, the first of four hit Broadway plays, and soon she was considered a member of America's first rank of dramatists, a position she maintained for more than twenty-five years. Apart from her literary accomplishments-eight original plays and three volumes of memoirs-Hellman lived a rich life filled with notable friendships, controversial political activity, travel, and love affairs, most importantly with Dashiell Hammett. But by the time she died, the truth about her life and works had been called into question. Scandals attached to her name, having to do with sex, with money, and with her own veracity. Dorothy Gallagher confronts the conundrum that was Lillian Hellman-a woman with a capacity to inspire outrage as often as admiration. Exploring Hellman's leftist politics, her Jewish and Southern background, and her famous testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Gallagher also undertakes a new reading of Hellman's carefully crafted memoirs and plays, in which she is both revealed and hidden. Gallagher sorts through the facts and the myths, arriving at a sharply drawn portrait of a woman who lived large to the end of her remarkable life and never backed down from a fight. Subjects; Hellman, Lillian 1905-1984 — Criticism and interpretation. Dramatists, American — 20th century — Biography. Women dramatists, American — Biography. Biography & autobiography: literary. BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women. Hellman, Lillian - Criticism and interpretation.
Price: €12.95