Lillian Hellman: Life - Softcover

Wright, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345347404 ISBN 13: 9780345347404

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1988

Synopsis

Vintage biography

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

This badly written biography of the playwright offers no insights into her life or work but, rather, responds to Hellman's three volumes of memoirs, which Wright (Pavarotti alternatelyrelies upon or claims are riddled with errors. He does not explain what constitutes misrepresentation or self-deception on Hellman's part (he is instead eager to reveal "Hellman's faulty memory for details"), and because he prefers to expose Hellman's contradictions rather than understand them, this biography is fatally crippled. Wright grudgingly pays tribute to Hellman's talent, but becomes embarrassingly moralistic about her private life, especially her relationship with Dashiell Hammett: they never married; they had too much sex ("few men or women have thrown themselves into the heterosexual maelstrom with more enthusiasm than these two"); they drank too much; they spent too much money during the Depression ("As for guilt about spending freely on herself when others were hungry, Hellman never showed any sign of it"); they were unfaithful; Hellman had an abortion. Wright concludes that Hellman's troubled political involvements were less "intellectual" than "visceral." One could not object to this portrait if it were convincingly argued, but Wright does not answer as many questions as he lays aside in favor of moral judgments. His biography is a brief for the prosecution. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Hellman's was one of the most eventful and colorful lives in American letters. From relative obscurity as Dashiell Hammet's girlfriend she developed into a powerful, celebrated playwright and author with radical political persuasions. At her death in 1984 there was much public controversy about the veracity of her writings, some of which are answered by this pop-level biography. But though Wrightauthor of Pavarotti, My Own Story ( LJ 3/1/81) and The Von Bulow Affair ( LJ 4/1/83)dutifully ticks off the facts, insight into the inner Hellman is slight. Despite this and a generally plodding prose style, the book's subject will ensure reader demand. For general collections.Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0345347404
• ISBN 13: 9780345347404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480