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LILLIAN HELLMAN

Name: LILLIAN HELLMAN
Author: Deborah Martinson
ISBN: 1-58243-315-1

A LIFE WITH FOXES AND SCOUNDRELS

by Deborah Martinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 5, 2005

A rich, literate, compelling account with the spark of a Hellman play.

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Out of the feuds, plays, movies and affairs of a complex life comes a sweeping, focused biography.

It’s reassuring to have Martinson (English and Writing/Occidental Coll.) write at the start of a biography authorized by her subject’s estate that “I don’t always like Lillian Hellman.” Sharp insight into Hellman’s often contradictory, controversial life is what Martinson goes after, not hagiography. Indeed, Hellman herself could be a little fox. Settling the estate of writer Dashiell Hammett, her longtime lover, she outmaneuvered his daughters to win the royalties from his work, though his will directed her to share them with his family. It was a grab that could have been made by one of the characters in Hellman’s thundering melodrama, The Little Foxes. Hammett, according to Martinson, pulled Hellman’s life and writing career together as he pointed her to playwriting by critiquing, editing and even contributing to her texts. Major success on Broadway and in Hollywood as a screenwriter followed. But Hellman did not get cozy on Shubert Alley or at the Brown Derby. A vocal, active liberal, she covered revolution in Spain and life in Russia, ending up the subject of extensive FBI files and, eventually, a witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the red scares of the ’50s. Throughout her life, she suffered fools with cutting words, though her razor-sharp opinions could be contradictory and hypocritical. As intense as her anger were the affairs she enjoyed well into late middle age. She once feared Leonard Bernstein, in a hotel room next to hers, might hear the noise she’d made while making love. Then she realized she could hear Bernstein, similarly engaged.

A rich, literate, compelling account with the spark of a Hellman play.

Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2005

ISBN: 1-58243-315-1

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Counterpoint

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.