biography
| name: |
Hellman, Lillian (Florence)
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1905–84)
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| biography:
| Playwright, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. After studying at New York and Columbia Universities, she worked in publishing and as a book reviewer and play-reader before attaining her first success with the play, The Children's Hour (1934). Concerned with social, political, and moral issues along with more personal ones, she wrote a number of successful plays including The Little Foxes (1939) and Toys in the Attic (1960). She also wrote many film scripts and adapted the works of others for film and the stage. She published several memoirs, including Scoundrel Time (1976), and she wrote the book for Leonard Bernstein's musical, Candide (1956). For some 30 years she lived with Dashiell Hammett and shared his commitment to radical political causes. Her appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (1952) resulted in her being blacklisted in Hollywood, and her last years were tainted by a feud with Mary McCarthy and allegations that she had often lied in her memoirs. |
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