Conversations with Lillian Hellman

by Jackson R. Bryer (Editor), Lillian Hellman

This volume includes twenty-six conversations with Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), ranging from early newspaper interviews on the occasions of the Broadway openings of her plays through extended talks with her which appears in the Paris Review , Esquire , and Rolling Stone , down to her last interviews in the early 1980s.

In all these interviews, Hellman gives her own account of her eventful and exciting life, her evaluations and analyses of her plays and accounts of how and why they came to be written. Throughout, her views are expressed with the pungency, directness, honesty, and wit which made Lillian Hellman such a universally admired and respected figure.

Hellman was seldom far from where the action was. The controversies in which she was involved are equaled only by the honors she received. This volume supplements her own memories by providing her own account of her life as she lived it―rather than from the vantage of the late 1960s and 1970s when she composed the memoirs.

330 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1986

About the author

Dr. Jackson R. Bryer is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Maryland's Department of English, who has also worked with the Department of Theatre as an affiliate faculty member and literary advisor.

Reviews

[Abi Kinnahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because I'm doing The Children's Hour in my scene class. Its really interesting, especially if you're a theatre person.