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Lillian Hellman: An Imperious Life
Lillian Hellman: An Imperious Life
By Dorothy Gallagher
Published January 28, 2014
184 pages
“Sharp-edged, darkly humorous” —Kirkus Reviews
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.
About the Author
Dorothy Gallagher is the author of Hannah’s Daughters and All the Right Enemies: The Life and Murder of Carlo Tresca, and two volumes of memoirs. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and Grand Street. She lives in New York City.
Reviews
“A sharp, insightful assessment” —Claremont Review of Books
“[Gallagher] meets the ‘unflaggingly famous’ dramatist head on in this pithy biography.” —Publishers Weekly
“Gallagher...gives us an illuminating and convincing portrait of Lillian Hellman, the real one and the heroically fanciful one.” —Playbill
“A fast-flowing, deeply provocative portrait of a seductive, truculent, and audacious literary powerhouse” —Booklist