Lillian Hellman

Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was a Jewish-American playwright and Marxist, romantically involved for thirty years with pulp writer Dashiell Hammett. She was also a long-time friend of poet Dorothy Parker.

Related Topics:
June 20 - 1905 - June 30 - 1984 - Jewish - American - Pulp - Writer - Dashiell Hammett - Dorothy Parker

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Her feud with fellow writer Mary McCarthy, who considered Hellman an unrepentant Stalinist, went on in public for years, and formed the basis for the play Imaginary Friends by Nora Ephron. McCarthy famously said of Hellman on The Dick Cavett Show that: "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'."

Related Topics:
Mary McCarthy - Stalinist - Nora Ephron - The Dick Cavett Show

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Hellman replied by filing a US$2,500,000 libel suit against McCarthy but died, at age 79 from natural causes, before it reached a conclusion. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kiernan-mary.html

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Since her death, her many critics, long silenced by threats of libel suits, have become more outspoken, and Hellman has become known as one of the leading charlatans modern literature.

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For example, the Oscar-winning film Julia was alleged to be autobiographical, but is now known to have been appropriated without attribution from the life of New York psychiatrist Muriel Gardiner. At the time of her death, Hellman was trying to purchase the rights to Dr. Gardiner's story.

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