Lillian Hellman [1905-84] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore

Lillian Florence Hellman was born 20 June 1905 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After college and work in the New York publishing industry, she married editor & writer Arthur Kober in 1925; they traveled, she wrote for the Herald Tribune, and both had work published. Paramount Studios hired Arthur in 1929, and they moved to Hollywood. By the time Lillian met mystery author Dashiell Hammett, she was unhappy in her marriage, and she and Arthur were divorced in 1932.
Lillian was working as a scenario reader at M.G.M. Studios when she met Dashiell Hammett at a party at Darryl Zanuck's house in November of 1930; they left the party together and remained companions until Dash's death in 1961.

Lillian's career as a playwright took off after the successful Broadway opening of "The Children's Hour" in November 1934. "The Little Foxes" (1939), "Watch On The Rhine" (1941), "The Searching Wind" (1944), "Another Part of The Forest" (a 1946 'prequel' to "Little Foxes"), and "The Autumn Garden" (1951) brought her fame and fortune. But like Hammett, she was forced to appear before H.U.A.C. (in 1952), which was followed by a $174,000 tax bill and vilification in the press.

Yet her success continued, with a 1952 Broadway revival of "The Children's Hour", "The Lark" (1954), the musical "Candide" [1956], and "Toys In The Attic" (1960). Though her later relationship with Hammett was rocky, she took care of him in the months before his death from cancer in January 1961. Lillian's years afterward were spent in Martha's Vineyard, working on her three volumes of autobiography: "An Unfinished Woman" [1969], "Pentimento" [1973], and "Scoundrel Time" [1978].

During an interview on the Dick Cavett TV show in 1979, novelist Mary McCarthy [1912-89] famously commented that "Every word that [Hellman] writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." Lillian filed a $2.5M libel suit and many New York literati chose sides; various portions of her memoirs were revealed to be untrue; Lillian died before the matter was tried in court, and the estate dropped the suit.

Lillian Hellman died of a heart attack at age 79 at Martha's Vineyard on 30 June 1984.

"These Three" feature film [Goldwyn/U.A. March 1936] /tt0028356/
altered story has the student accusing the two teachers of an illicit affair with a male doctor
directed by William Wyler; starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea & Bonita Granville

"The Children’s Hour" feature film [Mirisch/U/A. Dec 1961] /tt0054743/
directed by William Wyler; starring Audrey Hepburn & Shirley MacLaine

announced 11/2010: Hellman's "The Children’s Hour" stageplay will be adapted for television
by Graham King’s GK-TV and Samuel Goldwyn Films

"Days To Come" [1936 stageplay]
Concerns the tragic consequences of strike-breaking in a small Midwestern community.

"The Little Foxes" feature film [Samuel Goldwyn/R.K.O. Radio Pictures Aug 1941]
A ruthless matriarch in the American South of the late 1800s needs her estranged husband to agree to a shady business deal. Manipulation of their naive daughter brings the father home from Chicago, but he refuses to agree to the deal with her two brothers. She hatches a cunning plan that soon gets out of hand . . . • Directed by William Wyler; screenplay by Lillian Hellman, from her play; starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, Patricia Collinge, Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid, Jessica Grayson, John Marriott & Russell Hicks; Oscar noms for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Davis), Best Supporting Actress (TW & PC), Best Music Score, Best Editing, Best Art Direction
M.G.M. b&w DVD [9/2001] for $12.49
H.B.O. Home Video b&w DVD [7/98] out of prodn/used
H.B.O. Home Video b&w VHS [9/97] out of prodn/used
full credits from IMDb

"Watch On The Rhine" [1941 stageplay]
The story of how fascism affects an American family and the refugees that they harbor; won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

"Watch On The Rhine" feature film [Warner Bros. Aug 1943]
A family flees to America from war-torn Europe; the German-born husband's involvment in the anti-Nazi underground is found out, and blackmail leads to murder • Directed by Herman Shumlin; script by Dashiell Hammett from the Broadway stageplay by Lillian Hellman; starring Bette Davis & Paul Lukas; won Oscar for Best Actor, nominations for Best Picture, Best Script, Best Supporting Actress
Warner Video b&w VHS [3/2000] for $22.99
Region 1 DVD available only on the "Betty Davis Collection, Volume 3" 6-disk set [2012]
Warner Home Video b&w/color DVD [11/2012] out of prodn/used
full credits from IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Another Part of The Forest: Play in Three Acts" [1946 stageplay]
The second of two plays that constitute a chilling study of the financial and psychological conflicts within the Hubbards, a wealthy and rapacious Southern family.

"The Autumn Garden" [1951 stageplay]
Poignant yet humorous drama set at a summer resort near New Orleans.

"The Lark" [1955 stageplay]
Lillian made an English-language adaption of Jean Anouilh's 1952 play, "L'Alouette", based on the trial of Joan of Arc; Leonard Bernstein
composed incidental music for the first production, which opened on Broadway in November 1955.

The Chase movie starring Marlon Brando & Robert Redford

"The Chase" [Columbia Pictures Feb 1966]
When violence-prone 'Bubber' Reeves escapes from prison, fear pervades his home town in Texas: the son of the local oil baron is sleeping with Reeves's wife, for one thing; Sheriff Calder plans to capture Reeves alive which places him between the oil baron and the festering citizen mob. • Produced by Sam Spiegel; directed by Arthur Penn; adaptation by Lillian Hellman from the 1952 Broadway stageplay of Horton Foote; starring Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, E.G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule, Miriam Hopkins, Martha Hyer, Richard Bradford, Robert Duvall, James Fox, Diana Hyland, Henry Hull, Jocelyn Brando, Katherine Walsh, Malcolm Atterbury & Bruce Cabot
Sony Home Ent. widescreen color DVD [2/2004] for $14.99
Goodtimes Home Video color VHS [undated] for $7.43
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov" [1955]
a collection of Chekhov's correspondence edited by Lillian Hellman

Big Knockover stories by Dashiell Hammett

"The Big Knockover" [1963] by Dashiell Hammett [1894-1961]
includes Introduction by Lillian Hellman and ten stories: "The Gutting of Couffignal" (1925), "Fly Paper" (1929), "The Scorched Face" (1925), "This King Business" (1928), "The Gatewood Caper" (1923), "Dead Yellow Women" (1925), "Corkscrew" (1925), "Tulip" (1966), "The Big Knockover" (1927), and "$106,000 Blood Money" (1927)
Vintage 8x5 pb [12/94] for $10.40
Vintage pb [10/72] out of print/used

"Eating Together: Recipes and Recollections" memoir with recipes [1984] with Peter Feibleman

"Cakewalk" [1993 play] by Peter Feibleman
depicts his tumultuous relationship with Lillian, based on "Lilly", his 1988 memoir of their relationship
http://www.fictionwriter.com/index.htm

Cakewalk Broadway legend Elaine Stritch stars as literary legend Lillian Hellman in this beguiling account of Hellman's tumultuous relationship across several decades with a man 25 years her junior, played by Oscar-nominee Bruce Davison. Featuring music by Carly Simon. https://www.amazon.com/Cakewalk/dp/B0036UZC6S/ ©2009 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works

http://www.arenastage.org/hellman-festival/ ARENA STAGE AT THE MEAD CENTER FOR AMERICAN THEATER

Family & Friends
Lillian Florence Hellman was born in June 1905 in New Orleans, Louisiana; she wrote screenplays in Hollywood before finding success with stageplays on Broadway from 1934; she met mystery author Dashiell Hammett in 1931 and they were companions until his death in 1961; Lillian died in June 1984 at aged 79 near her home on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

husband Arthur Kober [1900-75] married 1925-1932
his New Yorker Magazine stories were later collected in the anthologies "Thunder Over The Bronx" [1935], "Pardon Me For Pointing" [1939],
"My Dear Bella" [1941], "Parm Me" [1945], and "Bella, Bella Kissed A Fella" [1951]

lover Peter S. Feibleman [1920-2013]
self-described as Lillian's 'lover, caretaker, writing partner, and principal heir'
official website • IMDb listing • Wikipedia •

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	"Hellman In Hollywood" [1982] by Bernard F. Dick Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press 8¾x6 hardcover [12/82] out of print/used Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press 8¾x6 hardcover [12/82] out of print/used
	"Lillian Hellman: The Image, The Woman" [1986] by William Wright Ballantine Books mass pb [3/88] out of print/used S&S 9x6 pb [4/2000] for $23.95 S&S hardcover [11/86] out of print/many used
	"The Cold War Romance of Lillian Hellman and John Melby" [1989] by Robert P. Newman Lillian met U.S. State Department Asia expert John F. Melby in 1944; their passionate affair included avid letter writing, talk of marriage, and trysts at the home of Ambassador Averill Harriman; after Lillian testified in the H.U.A.C. hearings in May 1952, Melby was pressured to repudiate her publicly; he refused, and was fired in 1953 by John Foster Dulles. Melby switched to an academic career and the affair with Hellman continued until her death in 1984. Univ North Carolina Press 9x5¾ pb [1/2011] for $47.48 {sic} Univ North Carolina Press pb [4/2009] out of print/used Univ North Carolina Press 8¼x5½ hardcover [4/89] for $18.95
	"Hellman and Hammett: The Legendary Passion of Lillian Hellman & Dashiell Hammett" [1996] by Joan Mellen HarperCollins 8¼x5½ pb [8/97] out of print/used
	"Lillian & Dash" [2013] by Sam Toperoff Dual biography covering their thirty years together as life partners, in the form of a novel Kindle Edition from Other Press [7/2013] for $9.99 Other Press 8¼x5½ pb [7/2013] for $12.19
	"Lillian Hellman: An Imperious Life" biography [2014] by Dorothy Gallagher Kindle Edition from Yale Univ Press [1/2014] for $14.75 Yale Univ Press 8½x6 hardcover [1/2014] for $19.27 Yale Univ Press 8½x6 hardcover [1/2014] out of print/used
	"Sinner-Saints" for Kindle [2014] by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Alternate-world short story about 'former Senator Lillian Hellman' dealing with a political crisis Kindle Edition from W.M.G. Publng [4/2014] for $2.99

	"Four Plays by Lillian Hellman - Complete & Unabridged" [1942] includes "The Children's Hour" [1934], "Days To Come" [1936], "The Little Foxes" [1939], and "Watch On The Rhine" [1941] Modern Library 7x4½ hardcover [1/1942] out of print/used
	"Six Plays by Lillian Hellman - Complete & Unabridged" [1960] includes "The Children's Hour" [1934], "Days To Come" [1936], "The Little Foxes" [1939], "Watch On The Rhine" [1941], "Another Part of The Forest" [1946], and "The Autumn Garden" [1951] Vintage 8x5 pb [10/79] for $11.23
	"The Collected Plays of Lillian Hellman" [1964] The same six important Hellman stageplays, 1934-51 as just above, plus six later/lesser plays: "The Searching Wind" [1944], "Montserrat" [1949], "The Lark" [1955], "Candide" [1957 operetta], "Toys In The Attic" [1960], and "My Mother, My Father, and Me" [1963] Little, Brown 9½x5½ hardcover [4/72] out of print/used Little, Brown 8¼x6 hardcover [1971] out of print/used Little, Brown 8¼x5¾ hardcover [1971] out of print/40+ used

Spirit of America Bookstore Lillian Hellman[1905-84]

Spirit of America Bookstore
Lillian Hellman
[1905-84]