HELLMAN, LILLIAN

Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905–June 30, 1984) was one of the greatest American playwrights of the twentieth century. She is best known for The Children's Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939), Watch on the Rhine (1941), and Toys in the Attic (1960). Many of her plays have been turned into successful motion pictures. Hellman's focus on the basic human problems of jealousy, greed, cowardice, and ambition give her dramas a weight of emotional depth, while they also shed light on the broader historical and political conflicts of Western society in the middle of the twentieth century. The Little Foxes, staged at the end of the Great Depression with Tallullah Bankhead in a starring role, provided a withering indictment of the American capitalist system through its portrayal of a southern family torn apart in the course of haggling over seed money for the construction of a mill. The radical sentiments expressed in the play were a possible outgrowth of Hellman's peripheral involvement in various Communist front organizations in the 1930s. Though she later claimed to have never belonged to the Communist Party, Hellman also never avoided relationships with those who did. This proximity to possible Communists eventually led to her being called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952, an ordeal that she recounts in one of her famous memoirs, Scoundrel Time (1976).

Hellman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child, she spent half of each year in the South, and half in New York City, where her father did business. Though she preferred the more easygoing lifestyle of New Orleans, she went to college in New York and got a job at a publishing house after leaving school. Her vivacious personality could not endure an office environment for long, however, and when the writer Arthur Krober offered to marry her and take her to California, she jumped at the chance to escape. The working relationship Hellman established with Hollywood lasted much longer than her marriage, and by the early 1930s she was living with mystery writer Dashiell Hammett. The two writers remained close companions until Hammett's death in 1961.

Due to her accomplishments and growth as a writer during the 1930s, Hellman became one of America's foremost public intellectuals. She was never shy about confronting inflammatory topics. For instance, her acclaimed play The Children's Hour explored issues of lesbianism while also examining, twenty years before McCarthyism, the damage caused by unsubstantiated public accusations. Other writers often criticized her by calling her a publicity hound, and author Mary McCarthy once said that "everything [Hellman] writes is a lie, including and and the." But these surly critics rarely matched Hellman's natural ability to be a true public figure. In her later years, Hellman turned to teaching and to the writing of her much-acclaimed memoirs, the first volume of which, An Unfinished Woman, was awarded the National Book Award in 1969. Hellman died on Martha's Vineyard in 1984.

See Also: HAMMETT, DASHIELL; HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE (HUAC).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bryer, Jackson R., ed. Conversations with Lillian Hellman. 1986.

Hellman, Lillian. Pentimento: A Book of Portraits. 1973.

Hellman, Lillian. Six Plays. 1960.

Michael T. Van Dyke