Lillian Hellman A Life with Foxes and Scoundrels

by Martinson, Deborah

• ISBN13: 9781582433158
• ISBN10: 1582433151
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-11-01
• Publisher: Counterpoint

Summary

"Few literary celebrities have lived with more abandon and under a brighter spotlight than Lillian Hellman. Yet even fewer have been doubted as absolutely as Hellman, famously denounced by rival Mary McCarthy as a writer for whom every word was "a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" Attacked by critics and idealized by admirers, Hellman's own determination to control and manipulate her image helped make her a figure of unknowable half-truths and rumors." "Lillian Hellman: A Life with Foxes and Scoundrels is the first biography of the iconoclastic playwright written with full cooperation of her family, friends, and inner circle. Deborah Martinson moves beyond the myths that drift around Hellman like the smoke from her ever-present cigarette and finds the sassy, outrageous woman committed to writing, to politics, and to having her say. Martinson's exhaustive research - through interviews, archives, and recently declassified CIA files - and her unprecedented access to Hellman's confidants paint the most complete, and surprisingly admiring, portrait of this remarkable writer that we've ever had."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Deborah Martinson is associate professor and chair of English Writing at Occidental College.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Stakes	vii
PART ONE THE GAME
Unlovely Legend	3	(14)
The Curve and the Edge	17	(22)
Still Life	39	(24)
PART TWO THE CHASE
From Still Life to Celluloid	63	(80)
Fame and Foxes	143	(96)
PART THREE THE SPOILS
Politics and Power	239	(48)
Death and Resurrection	287	(74)
Epilogue	361	(4)
Acknowledgments	365	(4)
Notes	369	(56)
References	425	(8)
Index	433