Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht , 1894-1964, American writer, b. New York City. He grew up in Wisconsin and, while still in his teens, worked on newspapers in Chicago. Early in his career he became involved in the Chicago literary movement of the time, founding in 1923 the Chicago Literary Times, an iconoclastic review that he edited for two years. A stormy and controversial figure, Hecht was known for a variety of literary and theatrical activities. He wrote novels, short-story collections, and plays, and he wrote, directed, and produced for the motion-picture industry. With Charles MacArthur, he collaborated on several film scripts and plays, of which The Front Page (1928), an irreverent drama of newspaper life, is the most famous.

Bibliography: See his autobiography, A Child of the Century (1954).

Hecht, Ben (1894–1964), born in New York, reared in Wisconsin, after refusing to go to college became in turn an acrobat, a violinist, and a newspaper reporter. As a bohemian member of the literary group that flourished in Chicago just after World War I, he became known as an ironical, cynical, ultra‐romantic writer, who was variously dubbed an “intellectual mountebank” and “Pagliacci of the Fire Escape.” He drew attention to himself in various ways, such as having a well‐publicized literary feud with his friend Maxwell Bodenheim, with whom he wrote The Master Poisoner (1918) and other plays; publishing the Chicago Literary Times (1923–24), a gaudy iconoclastic little magazine; and vociferously espousing the cause of art‐for‐art's‐sake. His attitude of mind was well revealed in his novels Erik Dorn⧫ (1921) and Gargoyles (1922). 1001 Afternoons in Chicago (1922), Tales of Chicago Streets (1924), and 1001 Afternoons in New York (1941) are romantic stories of city life. Fantazius Mallare (1922), a book with a decadent erotic theme, was followed by several other novels: The Florentine Dagger (1923); Humpty Dumpty (1924); The Kingdom of Evil (1924); Count Bruga (1926) and A Jew in Love (1930), both about Maxwell Bodenheim; and The Sensualists (1959); and by collections of short stories: Broken Necks (1924), The Champion from Far Away (1931), and A Book of Miracles (1939). Collected Stories was published in 1945. A Guide for the Bedevilled (1944) is a study of anti‐Semitism, and Perfidy (1961) is an angry attack on ostensible compromises in the creation of Israel. In 1928 was produced his play The Front Page, written in collaboration with Charles MacArthur, a tough, swift‐moving portrayal of newspaper life. His other plays include 20th Century (1932); The Great Magoo (1933), written with Gene Fowler; To Quito and Back (1937); and Ladies and Gentlemen (1939), written with MacArthur, with whom he also wrote motion‐picture scripts. A Child of the Century (1954) is his autobiography; Gaily, Gaily (1963) recalls rowdy, pre‐World War I Chicago; and Letters from Bohemia (1964) contains recollections of and letters from Sherwood Anderson, Bodenheim, Mencken, and other friends.