Lillian Hellman Books

In this widely praised follow-up to her National Book Award-winning first volume of memoirs, An Unfinished Woman, the legendary playwright Lillian Hellman looks back at some of the people who, wittingly or unwittingly, exerted profound influence on her development as a woman and a writer. The portraits include Hellman's recollection of a lifelong friendship that began in childhood, reminiscences that formed the basis of the Academy Award-winning film Julia.

Caustic, brilliant, uncompromising, accomplished, Lillian Hellman, one writer noted, can "take the tops off bottles with her teeth". Her career as a playwright began in 1938 with The Children's Hour, the first of seven plays that would bring her international attention and praise. Thirty years later, Hellman unleashed her peerless wit and candor on the subject she knew best: herself. An Unfinished Woman is a rich, surprising, emotionally charged portrait of a bygone world -- and of an independent-minded woman coming into her own. Wendy Wasserstein's introduction to this new edition provides a fascinating literary and historical context for reexamining Lillian Hellman's life and achievement.

An acting edition of the 1939 drama in which brothers Oscar and Ben Hubbard steal money from their ailing brother-in-law in order to fund a cotton mill, only to be caught by their sister Regina who demands they give her a 75 percent share of the business in exchange for keeping them out of prison

Presents an account of Lillian Hellman's summons to testify before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities in 1952.

A collection of six plays by Lillian Hellman about American life

Berlin is one of the most intriguing cities in Europe. Despite its tumultuous history, it has remained the heart of Germany, even when the heart was divided in four. In one pocket-sized volume, Berlin collects the best fiction and nonfiction about the city from an array of writers of international stature. From chanteuse Josephine Baker on her second adopted home to playwright Bertolt Brecht on the decline of the Weimar Republic, and including an excerpt from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, a resident's 1989 account of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and a description of Berlin from the 1912 edition of a Baedeker guide (written by Karl Baedeker himself), Berlin is an engaging literary stroll through a remarkable city. contents Preface / Vladimir Nabokov --The job / Bertolt Brecht --The Berlin diaries / Marie Vassiltchikov --Berlin Alexanderplatz / Alfred Doblin --Gravity's rainbow / Thomas Pynchon --Picture postcard, Berlin / Franz Kafka --The lavender lay / Marcellus Schiffer --The party at the wall / Bennett Owen --Julia / Lillian Hellman --Berlin's general aspect / Karl Baedeker --A Berlin diary / Christopher Isherwood --From Berlin to the Folies-Bergere / Josephine Baker --Berlin letter / Rainer Maria Rilke --Ritter Gluck / E. T. A. Hoffmann --The quest for Christa T. / Christa Wolf.