Synopses & Reviews
sLillian Hellman was a giant of twentieth-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway. Yet the author of The Little Foxes and Toys in the Attic is today remembered more as a toxic, bitter survivor and literary fabulist, the woman of whom Mary McCarthy said, "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" In A Difficult Woman, renowned historian Alice Kessler-Harris undertakes a feat few would dare to attempt: a reclamation of a combative, controversial woman who straddled so many political and cultural fault lines of her time. Kessler-Harris renders Hellman's feisty wit and personality in all of its contradictions: as a non-Jewish Jew, a displaced Southerner, a passionate political voice without a party, an artist immersed in commerce, a sexually free woman who scorned much of the women's movement, a loyal friend whose trust was often betrayed, and a writer of memoirs who repeatedly questioned the possibility of achieving truth and doubted her memory. Hellman was a writer whose plays spoke the language of morality yet whose achievements foundered on accusations of mendacity. Above all else, she was a woman who made her way in a man's world. Kessler-Harris has crafted a nuanced life of Hellman, empathetic yet unsparing, that situates her in the varied contexts in which she moved, from New Orleans to Broadway to the hearing room of HUAC. A Difficut Woman is a major work of literary and intellectual history. This will be one of the most reviewed, and most acclaimed, books of 2012.
Review
“Kessler-Harris portrays a complex woman…Though much has been written about Hellman, readers will enjoy this reexamination of what Kessler-Harris calls a ‘juicy character in the rarefied New York literary set, one who led a life filled with sex, scandals, art, and ideas. This biography of one of the most controversial women of the twentieth century, written by an award-winning, renowned historian, sure to receive plenty of critical attention.”—Booklist (starred) “Its been 25 years since the publication of William Wrights Lillian Hellman, the Image, the Woman; now is time for a reassessment that will grab our imagination.”—Library Journal “This is more than the best biography ever written about a famous and famously controversial playwright and activist. With great empathy and authority, Alice Kessler-Harris uses Lillian Hellman's work and life to illuminate the intellectual and political conflicts of 20th-century America. The distinguished historian makes better sense of Hellman's life than Hellman ever made of it herself.”—Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation “Whether you are fan of or skeptic about Lillian Hellman, prepare yourself to be deeply engrossed in Alice Kessler-Harriss excavation of Hellman as a woman and as a subject artfully created by Hellman herself and her contemporaries. Kessler-Harris brilliantly demonstrates that fact and fiction were revealingly intertwined in the life story of A Difficult Woman.”—Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America “Alice Kessler-Harris offers us a compelling and unabashedly flesh-and-blood portrait of a complex woman who was simultaneously cherished, despised and misunderstood.More than just a biography, A Difficult Woman uses Lillian Hellman's life as a way to explore the often controversial role that writers played in shaping the political life of Hollywood, Broadway, and American society from the anti-fascist struggles of the 1930s through the sexual revolution of the 1960s and beyond.This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the woman rather than the legend.”—Steve J. Ross, author of Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics "Brilliantly researched and vividly written, Alice Kessler-Harris has gifted us with a splendid biography—relevant and needed—for this embattled moment. Who is American, what is un-American? Who decides? What are the consequences of a life of blunt courage? Or of silence, deceit, passivity? Who are the liars, cowards, hypocrites? These questions, for our time—for all time, are profoundly addressed in this often startling, life and times of Lillian Hellman—forever creative, consistently fearless, a combative playwright and essayist dedicated to civil liberties. She was ‘a difficult woman—rude, passionate, independent. This is a marvelous read—eloquent, unique, alive with lessons from the 20th century—we all need again to address."—Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vols 1 and 2
Synopsis
A revelatory and provocative biography of one of the most controversial women of the twentieth century, by one of America's most renowned historians.
Synopsis
Lillian Hellman was a giant of twentieth-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway. Yet the author of
The Little Foxes and
Toys in the Attic is today remembered more as a toxic, bitter survivor and literary fabulist, the woman of whom Mary McCarthy said, "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" In
A Difficult Woman, renowned historian Alice
Kessler-Harris undertakes a feat few would dare to attempt: a reclamation of a combative, controversial woman who straddled so many political and cultural fault lines of her time.
Kessler-Harris renders Hellman's feisty wit and personality in all of its contradictions: as a non-Jewish Jew, a displaced Southerner, a passionate political voice without a party, an artist immersed in commerce, a sexually free woman who scorned much of the women's movement, a loyal friend whose trust was often betrayed, and a writer of memoirs who repeatedly questioned the possibility of achieving truth and doubted her memory.
Hellman was a writer whose plays spoke the language of morality yet whose achievements foundered on accusations of mendacity. Above all else, she was a woman who made her way in a man's world. Kessler-Harris has crafted a nuanced life of Hellman, empathetic yet unsparing, that situates her in the varied contexts in which she moved, from New Orleans to Broadway to the hearing room of HUAC. A Difficut Woman is a major work of literary and intellectual history. This will be one of the most reviewed, and most acclaimed, books of 2012.
Synopsis
A revelatory and provocative biography of one of the most controversial women of the twentieth century, by one of America's most renowned historians.
Synopsis
Lillian Hellman was a giant of twentieth-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway. Yet the author of
The Little Foxes and
Toys in the Attic is today remembered more as a toxic, bitter survivor and literary fabulist, the woman of whom Mary McCarthy said, "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" In A
Difficult Woman, renowned historian Alice Kessler-Harris undertakes a feat few would dare to attempt: a reclamation of a combative, controversial woman who straddled so many political and cultural fault lines of her time.
Kessler-Harris renders Hellman's feisty wit and personality in all of its contradictions: as a non-Jewish Jew, a displaced Southerner, a passionate political voice without a party, an artist immersed in commerce, a sexually free woman who scorned much of the women's movement, a loyal friend whose trust was often betrayed, and a writer of memoirs who repeatedly questioned the possibility of achieving truth and doubted her memory.
Hellman was a writer whose plays spoke the language of morality yet whose achievements foundered on accusations of mendacity. Above all else, she was a woman who made her way in a man's world. Kessler-Harris has crafted a nuanced life of Hellman, empathetic yet unsparing, that situates her in the varied contexts in which she moved, from New Orleans to Broadway to the hearing room of HUAC. A Difficut Woman is a major work of literary and intellectual history. This will be one of the most reviewed, and most acclaimed, books of 2012.
About the Author
Alice Kessler-Harris is the R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History at Columbia University, in New York City. She is one of America's most renowned scholars, known for her work on labor and gender history. She is the author of the classic history of working women, Out to Work. Her In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America won the Joan Kelly, Philip Taft, Herbert Hoover, and Bancroft Prizes. In 2012 she served as President of the Organization of American Historians.