Understanding Lillian Hellman

"In this study of Lillian Hellman's career, Alice Griffin and Geraldine Thorsten provide an examination of the major works of one of America's preeminent women playwrights and memoirists. To some, Hellman was anathema; to others heroic, especially in her defiance of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era. People remain fascinated by her love affairs, her thirty-year relationship with the detective fiction writer Dashiell Hammett, and her visits to Spain during its civil war and to Russia during World War II."--BOOK JACKET. "Griffin and Thorsten analyze not only Hellman's rarely acknowledged dramatic gifts for humor, irony, and satire, and for clear, strong narrative line and dialogue, but also her concern for moral issues. They credit Hellman's memoirs with introducing innovations in free association, elliptical time, and symbolism. They also reveal Hellman's pioneering effort to address women's issues, including dependence and self-doubt."--BOOK JACKET.