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.

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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'."

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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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June 20: June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining....

1905: 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar)....

June 30: June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining, and the last day of June....

Lillian Hellman related Images and Photos (experimental)

Lillian	Lillian Harvey	Lillian Gilbreth	Lillian Gish Late Teens
Lillian Gish: The Wind 1928	Lillian Newman's Dancers	Lillian Russell 1940	Lillian Gish: The Musketeers of Pig Alley 1912
Lars Hanson and Lillian Gish: The Wind 1928	Harry Hyde and Lillian Gish: The Lady and The Mouse 1913	The Westerners Lillian Bond Walter Brennan Gary Cooper Doris Davenport 1940	How Billy Got His Raise from Left Billy Franey Lillian Peacock Max Asher Gale Henry 1915