Lillian Hellman Read online

  Confederacy, 24–25, 31

  Congress of the League of American Writers, Fourth National, 78

  Conquest, Robert, 57

  Cort, David, 39

  Cowan, Arthur, 71, 100

  Czechoslovakia, 60, 79, 80, 107

  Daily Worker, 78

  Dain Curse, The, 101

  Daniel, Yuli, 121–22

  Dashiell family, 41

  Days to Come, 51–52

  Dead End (Hellman’s film adaptation), 52

  Dear Queen, The (Hellman and Kronenberger), 48

  Demopolis, AL, 9, 13–14, 16–17, 20–24, 26, 27

  Dennis, Peggy, 58–59

  Depression, 35–36, 50

  Detective fiction, 42–43, 47–49, 52, 115

  Diary of Anne Frank (Goodrich and Hackett’s adaptation), 115–18

  Dolan, Josephine. See Hammett, Josephine “Jose” Dolan

  Dollfuss, Engelbert, 75

  Dos Passos, John, 60, 61, 106, 131

  Dreiser, Theodore, 38

  Duranty, Walter, 58

  Eating Together (Hellman and Feibleman), 55

  Eisenstein, Sergei, 83, 84

  “Elfinstone” manuscript (Hammett), 43

  Ephron, Nora, 121, 125

  Farrell, James T., 106

  Father of the Bride (Goodrich and Hackett), 115

  Faulkner, William, 38, 48

  Faÿ, Bernard, 33–34

  Feibleman, Peter, 55, 72–73, 127, 128, 130, 136

  Fifth Amendment, 103, 104, 108–9, 113, 132

  Fischer, Louis, 60

  Fitzgerald, Scott, 48, 140

  Fonda, Jane, 7, 137

  Franco, Francisco, 36

  Frank, Anne, 115–18

  Friedman, Bruce Jay, 118

  Gardiner, Muriel, 76, 77–78, 135, 137–39

  Garrison, William Lloyd, 24

  Gellhorn, Martha, 56, 60, 135

  Germany: immigration of Jews to America from, 17–18, 30; Jews in, during nineteenth century, 17–18; Nazism and Nazi death camps in, 33, 35, 110, 117; and Nazi-Soviet Pact, 59, 77–78, 106. See also Hitler, Adolf

  Gero, George, 139

  Gershwin, George, 90, 91

  Gershwin, Lee, 40, 52

  Glass Key, The (Hammett), 43, 44

  Gomułka, Władysław, 87

  Goodbye, Columbus (Roth), 118

  Goodrich, Frances, 115–18

  Grand Hotel (Shumlin production), 50

  Grant, Ulysses, 25

  Great Terror, The (Conquest), 57

  Group, The (McCarthy), 133

  Hackett, Albert, 115–18

  Hammett, Dashiell: alcoholism of, 41, 44, 47–48, 52, 67, 95; arrest and imprisonment of, 94–97, 102; assault and battery by, 44; biographies of, 3, 95–97; birth of, 41; children of, 42, 43; and Communist Party, 77, 88–89, 110, 123; copyrights of, 100–101; death of, 41, 54, 72, 96, 98, 100; decline of writing career of, 47–48, 67–68, 95; detective fiction by, 42–43, 47–49, 52, 115; on Diary of Anne Frank as play, 115; editorial assistance by, for LH’s plays, 4, 13, 49–50, 53, 95; end of sexual relationship between LH and, 67, 72; family background of, 41; finances of, 97, 100; first meeting between LH and, 40–41; and Hardscrabble Farm, 68, 95, 97; health problems of, 41–42, 47–48, 97–99; in Hollywood, 52; letters of, 3; LH’s memoirs on, 71, 72; on LH’s testimony before HUAC, 103; marriage of, to Josephine Dolan and their later separation and divorce, 42, 43, 45, 52; Nell Martin’s relationship with, 43–44; and Parker, 124; personality of, 40, 43, 44; physical appearance of, 41; as Pinkerton Detective, 41; smoking by, 41, 44–45; and Soviet Union, 13, 57, 59, 77; and Gertrude Stein, 28, 29; on Watch on the Rhine, 100; in World War I, 41–42; in World War II, 49–50

  Hammett, Josephine “Jo” (Hammett’s daughter), 42, 97, 99–101, 115

  Hammett, Josephine “Jose” Dolan (Hammett’s wife), 42, 43, 45, 52, 101

  Hammett, Mary Jane, 42, 100, 101

  Hardscrabble Farm, 68, 95, 97, 99, 126

  Hardwick, Elizabeth, 3, 13, 31, 106, 130

  Harris, Jed, 51

  Harriman, Kathleen, 83

  Harriman, W. Averell, 82, 87, 123

  Hearst, William Randolph, 51

  Hellman, Bernard, 24

  Hellman, Hannah, 4, 5, 27

  Hellman, Jenny, 4, 5, 27

  Hellman, Julia Newhouse, 4–5, 15, 26, 27, 37

  Hellman, Lillian: abortions by, 38, 52; alcoholism of, 34, 44, 92, 126; anti-Semitism of, 34, 40, 119; biographies of, 3, 5, 109; birth of, 4, 27; death of, 3, 55, 73, 96, 101, 142; early jobs of, 4, 38, 39, 50; education of, 4, 27, 37; end of sexual relationship between Hammett and, 67, 72; finances of, 5, 21–22, 31–32, 50, 71, 97–101; first meeting between Hammett and, 40–41; in France, 29–30, 39, 52, 56, 59–60, 64, 75; and Hammett’s arrest and need for bail, 94–97; and Hammett’s biographers, 96–97; and Hammett’s copyrights, 100–101; Hammett’s editorial assistance for plays by, 4, 13, 49–50, 53, 95; as Hammett’s executor, 100; and Hardscrabble Farm, 68, 95, 97, 99, 126; health problems of, 126–28, 141–42; in Hollywood, 4, 28, 39, 52, 74; homes of, 4, 5, 27, 37, 52, 55, 68, 73, 97, 98, 99, 126, 142; honors and awards for, 50, 55, 99, 120; HUAC testimony by, 2, 7, 98, 102–13, 115, 140; Jewish identity of, 3, 34–35, 40, 114–15, 119; lawsuit against Mary McCarthy by, 7, 126, 130, 133–40, 142–43; truthfulness of, 7, 34, 76, 88–89, 96–97, 107, 109, 129–43; marriage of, 4, 37–40, 45–46, 71; parents and family background of, 4–6, 8, 15–27, 37; as Parker’s literary executor, 124–25; personality of, 2–8, 31, 32, 39, 49, 66, 126, 127; political views of, and Communist Party, 2, 3, 6, 29, 36, 45, 61–63, 70, 76–77, 89, 105–6, 111–12, 121, 125–26, 141; psychoanalysis of, 34, 68–69, 90–93, 139; screenwriting by, 2, 52, 74; significance of, 2; smoking by, 44–45, 126; in Soviet Union, 13, 56–59, 65, 68, 81–89, 121–23, 129, 140; and Spanish Civil War, 36, 59–62, 79, 131, 140–41; teaching by, 52, 121; on truth as objective of writers, 54; will of, 73; truthfulness of, 7, 34, 76, 88–89, 96–97, 107, 109, 129–43; youth of, in New Orleans and New York City, 4, 5, 7–8, 21–22, 27, 32. See also Memoirs of Lillian Hellman; and specific writings

  Hellman, Max, 4–5, 8, 21, 27, 37

  Hemingway, Ernest: and Gellhorn, 56, 60; and Hammett, 48; and LH, 29–30, 140–41; and Spanish Civil War, 56, 60; and Stein, 29, 30

  Herbst, Josephine, 60, 61

  Hersey, John, 83

  Hiss, Alger, 102

  Hitler, Adolf: attack on Soviet Union by, 78; and LH, 110, 111; and Nazi-Soviet Pact, 59, 77–78, 106; and Spanish Civil War, 60; Stein on, 33, 36

  Hollywood: blacklisting by, 98, 112, 115; dinner party for Gertrude Stein in, 28–29; first meeting between LH and Hammett in, 40–41; Hammett in, 52; LH’s assessment of her testimony before, 113; LH’s early jobs in, 4, 39; LH’s screenwriting in, 52, 74; Screen Writers Guild in, 52

  Hollywood Ten, 102

  Homage to Catalonia (Orwell), 61

  Hook, Sidney, 106, 110, 111–12

  Hopkins, Harry, 82

  House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC): Fifth Amendment taken by witnesses before, 103, 104, 108–9, 113, 132; Hammett on LH’s testimony before, 103; Kazan’s testimony before, 104, 112; LH’s let - ter to, 104, 108–9; LH’s testimony before, 2, 7, 98, 102–13, 115, 132, 140; Arthur Miller’s testimony before, 109, 132; Odets’ testimony before, 104; and Rauh as LH’s lawyer, 103, 105, 107–9; Schulberg’s testimony before, 104, 112–13; Scoundrel Time on, 98, 103–5, 107–11

  Howe, Irving, 106, 110–11, 114

  How Much? (Blechman), 118

  HUAC. See House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) Hungary, 106, 107

  Ingersoll, Ralph, 50, 67, 90

  James, Clive, 63, 136–37

  Jewish literature, 114–19. See also specific writers

  Jews: in Alabama, 16–21; and Civil War, 24–25, 31; in Germany in nineteenth century, 17–18; Grant’s order against, in Union-occupied areas during Civil War, 25; Hellman’s Jewish identity, 3, 34–35, 40, 114–15, 119; immigration of, to
America, 17–18, 30, 40; Kober’s Jewish identity, 40; in My Mother, My Father and Me, 24; as peddlers in America, 17, 18–20, 30, 31; population of, in South, 24; and Slansky trial in Czechoslovakia, 60, 80; as slave owners, 24; Stein’s Jewish identity, 32–33; and Talmud, 22, 24; and theater adaptation of The Diary of Ann Frank, 115–18. See also AntiSemitism; Marx headings

  Johnson, Diane, 43, 95–97, 101

  Judaism. See Anti-Semitism; Jews

  Judt, Tony, 61, 105, 117

  Julia (movie), 7, 120, 137

  “Julia” (story): Feibleman on, 136; Muriel Gardiner on, 76, 77–78, 137–39; LH’s commentary on, in 1979, 127; LH’s version of, 74–77, 107, 117; McCarthy on, 135–36; and Podhoretz, 136, 142; questions about veracity of, 38, 56, 76, 135–36, 138–40, 142

  Justice Department Watch, 126

  Kanin, Garson, 116, 118

  Katz, Otto, 34, 59–60, 79–80

  Kazan, Elia, 71, 104, 112

  Kazin, Alfred, 89, 106

  Kempton, Murray, 106, 110

  Kennan, George, 69, 82, 87

  Kennedy, Jackie, 121

  Khrushchev, Nikita, 121, 123

  King, Martin Luther, Jr., 124, 125

  Kingsley, Sidney, 52

  Kober, Arthur: and bail money for Hammett, 94; divorce of, 46; Jewish identity of, 40; on LH’s political views, 62; on LH’s sexual relationships, 68; and LH’s writing career, 48, 52; marriage of, to LH, 4, 37–40, 45–46, 71; meeting between LH and, 37, 38; personality of, 38, 39–40; psychoanalysis of, 90; writing career of, 39, 40

  Koestler, Arthur, 60

  Kołakowski, Leszek, 61

  Kopelev, Lev, 122, 123

  Kronenberger, Louis, 48

  Kutcher, James, 110

  Lark, The (Hellman’s adaptation), 98

  Lash, Joseph, 138

  Lehman brothers, 20

  Levin, Meyer, 116

  Liberator, 24

  Little Foxes, The: as based on Marx family, 9, 21–23, 26, 32; difficulties in writing of, 53; Hammett’s editorial assistance with, 53, 95; Hubbard family in, 13, 21, 22, 53, 118; opening date of, 1, 9; success of, 49, 52, 68; theme of, 53, 118

  London, Ephraim, 130, 135, 139

  Louisiana. See New Orleans

  MacDonald, Dwight, 106, 107, 133

  Mailer, Norman, 2, 134, 140

  Malamud, Bernard, 114, 118

  Mandelstam, Osip, 84, 86

  Martha’s Vineyard, 34, 55, 95, 96, 99–100, 112, 116, 136, 142

  Martin, Nell, 43–44

  Marx, Amelia Weidenreich, 23, 25, 26

  Marx, Edward, 26

  Marx, Henry, 20, 26

  Marx, Isaac: attitude of, toward poverty, 22; birth of, in Bavaria, 17; brothers of, 20, 23; as businessman, 21, 22, 26; children of, 15, 21, 23, 25; in Civil War, 24–25; death of, 15, 18, 26; in Demopolis, AL, 9, 13–14, 16–17, 20–24, 26; family background of, 17–18; homes of, 23, 25; immigration of, to Alabama, 5–6, 9, 15, 18, 30; marriage of, 18, 23; in Mobile, AL, 25–26, 30; as peddler, 17, 18–20; slaves of, 24; wealth and property of, 23–26

  Marx, Jacob, 26, 27

  Marx, Julius, 25, 26

  Marx, Lehman, 20, 22

  Marx, Moses, 23

  Marx Brothers Banking Company, 21

  Marxism, 61. See also Communist Party

  Maryland, 30–31

  Matthau, Walter, 34, 119

  Maybe, 128, 137

  McCarthy, Joe, 104, 111, 112, 125

  McCarthy, Mary: on factual accuracy in writing, 130–31; on false statements in LH’s memoirs, 133–34; friends of, 133; and Hardwick on LH, 3; on LH during Dick Cavett show, 130; LH on writing by, 132; LH’s lawsuit against, 7, 126, 130, 133–40, 142–43; on LH’s plays, 132; meetings between LH and, 131; memoirs by, 133; on Miller’s testimony before HUAC, 132; on Soviet Union, 106, 131; on Spanish Civil War, 131; writings by, 130, 133

  McCarthyism, 2, 7, 70, 98, 102–13, 123

  McCracken, Samuel, 142

  McKelway, St. Clair, 68

  Melby, John, 68–70, 71, 82, 83, 88, 92

  Memoirs of Lillian Hellman: childhood incidents in, 7–8, 21–22; on Hammett, 52, 71, 72, 88–89; LH on truth of, 129; on love life, 52, 64, 71–72; McCarthy on, 133–34; McCracken on, 142; motivation of, for writing, 5, 55, 121; questions on veracity of, 5, 7–8, 38, 56, 76, 88–89, 135–36, 138–40, 142; republication of, in one volume, 57, 111, 127, 129, 137; on Soviet Union and Stalin, 57, 62, 86, 122; on Spanish Civil War, 60; writing and publication of, 6–7, 55, 126. See also “Julia” (story); Pentimento; Scoundrel Time; Three; Unfinished Woman, An

  Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (McCarthy), 133

  Miller, Arthur, 2, 54–55, 71, 109, 132

  Misch, Robert, 131

  Mobile, AL, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25–26, 30

  Mussolini, Benito, 60

  My Mother, My Father and Me, 54, 118–19

  NAACP, 124–25

  Navasky, Vict5or, 103

  Nelson, Steve, 60

  Newhouse, Julia. See Hellman, Julia Newhouse

  Newhouse, Leonard, 26

  Newhouse, Sophie Marx, 15, 23, 26–27

  New Orleans: boardinghouse run by Hellman sisters in, 4, 5, 27; Max Hellman’s business in, 27; LH’s youth in, 4, 5, 7–8, 27; move of Sophie Marx Newhouse to, 27; segregation in, 7–8

  New Republic, 133

  New York City: Ansonia Hotel in, 27; Hammett’s move to, 43; Hellman family in, 4, 27, 37; Jewish immigrant culture in, 15, 40; LH’s homes in, 27, 37, 98, 99; LH’s move to, from Hollywood, 45; Newhouse family in, 27

  New York Daily Mirror, 11

  New Yorker, 48, 50, 68, 133

  New York Post, 51

  New York Review of Books, 133

  New York Times: on Another Part of the Forest, 11; on Days to Come, 51; on The Diary of Anne Frank, 116; on “Julia,” 138; on LH’s travel to Soviet Union, 129; Mailer’s ad in, on LH’s lawsuit against McCarthy, 134; on major living American playwrights, 54–55; on Maybe, 14; on Scoundrel Time, 58

  New York Times Book Review, 55

  New York University, 4, 37

  Nixon, Richard, 126

  Odets, Clifford, 2, 15, 104

  O’Neill, Eugene, 2

  Orlova, Raya, 83, 86–87, 122–23

  Orwell, George, 60–61

  O’Sullivan, Ben, 133–35

  Ozick, Cynthia, 117

  Paris Comet, 48

  Paris Review, 131, 132, 135

  Parker, Dorothy, 1, 56, 60, 123–25, 140

  Parks, Rosa, 8

  Partisan Review, 133

  Pasternak, Boris, 84

  Pentimento, 55, 74, 76, 107, 120, 136–40. See also “Julia” (story); Memoirs of Lillian Hellman

  Perelman, Laura, 67

  Perelman, S. J., 67, 139–40

  Phillips, William, 106

  Podhoretz, Norman, 136, 142

  Poland, 87, 106, 115

  Polonsky, Abraham, 112

  Porter, Katherine Anne, 61

  Pravda, 79

  Prica, Srdja, 70

  Progressive Party, 69, 106

  Prose, Francine, 116

  Psychoanalysis, 34, 68–69, 74, 90–93, 139

  Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 91

  Rahv, Philip, 133

  Rather, Dan, 111

  Rauh, Joseph, 105, 107–9, 135

  Redgrave, Vanessa, 7, 137

  Rich brothers, 20

  Robles, Jose, 61, 131

  Roethke, Theodore, 68

  Rollyson, Carl, 109

  Roosevelt, Franklin, 35–36, 81, 123, 138

  Roosevelt, James, 67

  Rosenberg, Julius and Ethel, 102

  Roth, Henry, 114

  Roth, Philip, 118

  Roughead, William, 49

  Russia. See Soviet Union

  Samuels, Dorothy, 126

  Schapiro, Meyer, 133

  Schulberg, Benn, 112–13

  Schulberg, Budd, 104, 112–13

  Scoundrel Time: anti-Stalinist Left in America as scoundrels of, 104–8, 115;
criticisms on and inaccuracy of, 7, 107, 110–11, 134; on HUAC testimony by LH, 98, 103–5, 107–11; on Jewish timorousness, 115; publication of, 7, 55, 109, 127; reviews of, 109–10. See also Memoirs of Lillian Hellman

  Screen Writers Guild, 52

  Searching Wind, The, 49–50, 81

  Shumlin, Herman, 1, 50, 68, 90

  Sifton, Elizabeth, 131

  Silvers, Robert, 133

  Simon, Otto. See Katz, Otto

  Simone, André. See Katz, Otto

  Sinyavsky, Andrei, 121–22

  Slanksy, Rudolf, 80

  Slavery, 12, 14, 19, 20, 24, 31

  Smith, Randall, 70

  Smith Act, 102, 111

  Socialism, 77, 93, 110–11

  Socialist Workers Party, 110

  Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, 121, 122

  Sontag, Susan, 121

  Soviet Union: anti-Semitism in, 83, 107, 117; Berlin blockade by, 107; and Bolshevik revolution, 57; espionage by, 102; famine in Ukraine in, 58; and Hammett, 13, 57, 59, 77; intellectuals, artists and writers in, 84–86, 121–22; Kazin in, 89; Kennan on, 69, 82; Khrushchev in, 121, 123; LH in, 13, 56–59, 65, 68, 81–89, 121–23, 129, 140; LH’s support of, 36, 59, 62, 63, 77, 111; and Nazi-Soviet Pact, 59, 77–78, 106; post-war events by, 106–7; purges in, 57–59, 79, 85–86, 106; and Spanish Civil War, 60–61, 106, 131; Henry Wallace in, 82; in World War II, 78, 82, 83, 86–87, 122, 123. See also Stalin, Joseph

  Spanish Civil War: and Hemingway, 56, 60; and Hitler, 60; and LH, 36, 59–62, 79, 131, 140–41; McCarthy on, 131; and Soviet Union, 60–61, 106, 131

  Spender, Stephen, 135

  Stalin, Joseph: and Allies during World War II, 82, 123; and anti-Stalinist Left in America, 104–8; death of, 107; Khrushchev’s denunciation of, 121, 123; and LH, 36, 62, 63, 81, 84, 88, 92, 111–12, 123, 140; Melby on, 69; and Nazi-Soviet Pact, 59, 77–78, 106; post-war events by, 106–7; purges by, 57–59, 79, 85–86, 106; and Socialist Realism, 84; territorial ambitions of, 82, 106; and Warsaw Uprising, 87. See also Soviet Union

  State Department, U.S., 70, 102

  Stein, Daniel, 30, 31

  Stein, Gertrude: autobiographical material in works by, 32; The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by, 29, 32–33; compared with LH, 28–35; family background of, 30–31; and Hammett, 28, 29; and Hemingway, 29, 30; on Hitler, 33, 36; Hollywood dinner party for, 28–29; Jewish identity of, 32–33; lecture tour of America by, 29, 33; physical appearance of, 28–29; political views of, 29, 35–36; self-confidence of, 31, 32; wealthy family of, 31; during World War II, 33–34; writing style of, 29; youth of, 32