20623 - ams - commemoration - Lillian Hellman - The Socially Conscious Dramatist

 

Lillian Hellman was the first woman to be admitted to the club of American dramatists, writing a hit play when she was 29. She was a playwright, a screenwriter and a memoirist and a political activist. Her popularity is based on the two enormously successful plays from the 1930s: 'The Children's Hour' (1934) and 'The Little Foxes' (1939). 'The Children's Hour', was Hellman's first play. It is the story of two women running a school for girls whose lives are ruined by a malicious student spreading the lie that they are lovers. The play was banned in London, Chicago, and Boston. 'The Children's Hour' was considered too scandalous for the Pulitzer prize. It was an immense hit in Paris and New York running on Broadway for almost two years. Like many writers of her generation, Hellman was an outspoken leftist in the 1930s whose political convictions often landed her in trouble. Towards the end of the career, she began writing the four volumes of legendarily unreliable memoirs, 'An Unfinished Woman', 'Pentimento', 'Scoundrel Time' and 'Maybe'. All four were critical and commercial successes, 'An Unfinished Woman' winning the National Book award in 1969. Hellman's plays are still frequently staged around the world.