Lillian Hellman
- Category : Writers-Playwright-script
- Type : ME
- Profile : 6/3 - Role Model / Martyr
- Definition : Single
- Incarnation Cross : LAX Education 1
Biography
American writer, the most important playwright of her generation for her psychological intensity and liberal views, using a clear, cold eye on her characters: the queen of Broadway's intelligentsia.
Raised for most of her childhood in New York City, she spent three years in university and a year trying to make a living. After marriage to playwright actor Arthur Kober in 1925, she settled down to write. They divorced in 1932.
Hellman's first play was produced in 1934, "The Children's Hour," which ran for 691 performances. A Jew, she returned from Europe in 1941 a militant anti-fascist, resulting in "Watch on the Rhine,"
In 1952, Hellman was one of a number of writers targeted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities but she refused to name people who were accused by the witch-hunt, taking the 5th amendment.
In her autobiography, "An Unfinished Woman," 1969, she told of her long relationship with writer Dashiell Hammett.
Hellman died of cardiac arrest on 30 June 1984, Martha's Vineyard.